Under the theme "Mobilizing the Next 5 Billion", the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) 2014 has attracted over 15,000 people to discuss how to grasp the business opportunity presented by the 5 billion net users who are still using the traditional internet only.

CRI's Alexander Aucott has the detail.

As smartphone technology improves, more and more people are using them to surf the net instead of using a PC.

The number of mobile internet users has already surpassed 1 billion worldwide.

Wu Hequan, president of Internet Society of China, says the growth of mobile internet has been extremely fast in recent years.

"The yearly flow rate of mobile internet users in the world in 2013 is 81% more than that in 2012. And this increase rate will continue to remain at over 60% for the next few years. The monthly flow-rate increases rapidly as well."

However, there are still about 5 billion users in the world who only access the internet using home computers.

So the business opportunity in the mobile industry lies in converting those people into smartphone users.

Jeff Chen is the CEO of Maxthon Ltd., an internet browser company which has also developed its product on the smartphones. He says mobile internet, as its name suggests, has unique advantages compared with traditional internet.

"Mobile internet brings the internet to us closer. In the traditional internet era, people must go back home or stay in the office to use the internet. You cannot use the internet when you're on the street. But in the mobile internet era, you can surf on the internet and share your views at anytime, anywhere."

However, mobile internet users have totally different using habits and needs. Based on his experience, Chen suggests that products on the mobile platform should be designed specially for smartphones.

"When we're waiting for the bus or taking the subway, we may only have 10 minutes to use the internet. So the products must go right to the heart of the matter, and be simple enough for users to understand and finish what they want to do immediately."

If the world's 5 billion traditional internet users suddenly go mobile, what impact will that have on the industry and home-computing habits?

Yuan Foyv, General Marketing Manager for Yixin, a wechat-like app developed by 163.com, doesn't think traditional internet service will be totally replaced.

"I think the two modes will exist at the same time. Mobile internet is what you use when you're moving. But when you're at home, with your family, you may need a bigger screen, you'll still choose the traditional internet."

Wu Hequan shares a similar view. He points that the trend of using internet should be a mixture on multi-platforms.

"Now the trend is the interaction between smartphones, PC and televisions. The three platforms use three different networks in the past, but in the future many applications can be used among the three platforms through cloud technology."