BEIJING -- More than 500 million Chinese now read news on their mobile devices, accounting for more than 70 percent of the nation's netizens, said a report on China's journalism development on Wednesday.

The report by the All-China Journalists Association, said that social networks and news apps have become an increasingly important channel for people to obtain information.

China's media industry reached 1.3 trillion yuan ($186 billion) in 2015, increasing by 12.3 percent from 2014.

In 2014, the internet accounted for 47.2 percent of the media industry and the figure increased to 51.8 percent in 2015.

In the first half of last year, internet advertising spending grew by 26.9 percent, 10 percentage points more than the same period in 2015.

Technological development has become a powerful impetus for media reform, the report said, citing the use of big data, cloud computing, news -writing robots, drones and virtual reality technologies.