BEIJING -- China's regulatory authority on Tuesday vowed to strengthen management of the Internet as online application and consumption has become a new source of economic growth in the country.

Speaking at the 2012 China Internet Conference, Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, said a comprehensive management system will be introduced to include government management, industrial self-regulation and supervision by society over the Internet industry.

"While safeguarding a good Internet market order, the improved management aims to stop the spread of harmful information online and clean cyber space," Miao said.

An increasing number of Chinese are taking to the Internet to seek business opportunities or express their views on public issues.

More than 270 million Chinese had opened Twitter-like microblogging accounts on the Internet by the end of June, as the country's Internet users climbed to 538 million, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

MIIT figures also showed China's online business transactions exceeded 3.3 trillion yuan ($520.58 billion) in the first half of this year, up 14 percent from 2011.