China consumed 1.38 trillion yuan ($223.3 billion) in information technology-related products and services in the first five months of the year, up 19.8 percent , the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Friday.

The consumption of communications services, software technology services and information technology terminal products rose 8.7 percent, 25.9 percent and 25.7 percent year-on-year, respectively.

The e-commerce ser's total transaction volume increased 46 percent from the same period last year to reach 4.01 trillion yuan, the MIIT said in an online statement.

 data consumption also surged due to the growing popularity of instant mess applications, particularly those used on smartphoness.

mobiles instant messaging applications like  have garnered a userbase of 486 million people thus far, contributing to a 60.9-percent increase in mobiles Internet data traffic and a 56.8-percent rise in related revenues during the January-May period, according to MIIT data