A visitor learns about a driverless aircraft at the Smart Mobility Zone during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

China had 2.92 million corporate enterprises engaged in the core industries of the digital economy, with 36.16 million persons employed as of the end of 2023, the fifth national economic census showed on Thursday.

The total yearly business revenue for the core industries of the digital economy reached 48.45 trillion yuan (about 6.74 trillion U.S. dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its website.

Among the corporate enterprises, 262,000 were engaged in digital products manufacturing, 274,000 were in the digital product services sector, 1.43 million in the digital technology application industry and 950,000 in industries driven by digital factors.

A total of 14.61 million individuals were employed in digital technology application firms during this period, ranking first in terms of proportion in the total employees for the core industries of digital economy in 2023. This was followed by 13.37 million employed in digital products manufacturing firms, 6.66 million in industries driven by digital factors and 1.52 million in digital product service companies, showed the data.

Meanwhile, digital product manufacturing enterprises logged 2023's highest business revenue of 20.48 trillion yuan. Digital technology application firms saw 14.04 trillion yuan in business revenue, followed by industries driven by digital factors with 9.74 trillion yuan, and the digital product services sector with 4.18 trillion yuan.

Core industries of the digital economy involve economic activities that provide digital technologies, products, services, infrastructure and solutions for the digital development of the industry, as well as those completely dependent on digital technologies and data elements.