BEIJING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- China's online education is thriving and the number of users will continue to grow by around 5 percent a year, according to a report released earlier this week.

The online education market will grow at over 20 percent annually, said the 2017 White Paper on Online Education in China, complied by the Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University and Baidu Education.

The number of users has reached 144 million, 120 million of whom use mobile phones, according to the report, based on the study of more than 200,000 cases.

More than 53 percent of Chinese parents have purchased online classes for their children, 31.2 percent of them more than once.

The report also illustrated online education trends, including the growth of older online learners and the increasing AI use.