(Photo: CGTN)

China's Internet service and its related sectors maintained sound growth in the first 10 months of the year, seeing a stable market expansion of online streaming apps, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The sectors' revenue totaled 766.3 billion yuan (111.47 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-October period, up 18 percent year-on-year, data showed.

In first 10 months, Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing saw their Internet business revenues up 17.4 percent, 18.2 percent and 34 percent year-on-year, respectively, remaining the top three in the country.

The sectors' R&D expenditure grew rapidly during the period, up 13.7 percent to 39.1 billion yuan (5.69 billion U.S. dollars), said the MIIT.

Information services remained the largest revenue contributor, accounting for 91.2 percent of the total, with online gaming earning 159.4 billion yuan (23.19 billion U.S. dollars), up 18.5 percent year-on-year.

China had 4.45 million mobile apps by the end of October, including more than 2.7 million on domestic, third-party app stores. Gaming apps maintained dominance, followed by daily service apps and e-commerce apps.