BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhuanet) -- China's IT market is expected to reach 289.8 billion yuan (35 billion US dollars) in 2004, up 15 percent year-on-year, a leading IT consulting firm announced here Wednesday.

    The hardware market will reach 190.1 billion yuan (23 billion US dollars), indicating a yearly rise of 10 percent. The software and IT service market are expected to reach 53.9 billion yuan (6.52 billion US dollars) and 45.8 billion yuan (5.54 billion US dollars), up 25 percent and 27 percent year-on-year respectively.

    According to a report on "China IT trends in 2004" issued by China Computer World (CCW) Research, governmental bodies and manufacturing and power industries may contribute greatly to the IT market growth this year.

    Governmental bodies are expected to purchase 40 billion yuan (4.84 billion US dollars) worth of IT products this year, the manufacturing industry, 28.7 billion yuan (3.47 billion US dollars), and the power industry, 5.9 billion yuan (713.42 million US dollars).

    The report says that China will experience a "golden age" in its IT market in the five years to come, with a yearly hefty growth rate of 18.5 percent.

    In 2003, China's IT market reached 252 billion yuan (30.47 billion US dollars), an increase of 11 percent over the previous year.

    CCW Research also predicts that China's online gaming market will likely reach 1.65 billion yuan (199.52 million US dollars) this year, representing a rise of 26.9 percent over 2003.

    Statistics show that people on the Chinese mainland who play online games topped 15 million in 2003. Enditem