BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- China's Internet companies saw combined revenues up 17.3 percent year-on-year during the first quarter of 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Sunday.

Revenues reached 240.2 billion yuan (35.85 billion U.S. dollars) during the period.

The growth was higher compared with a 10-percent rise recorded in the first two months, but was down by 6.5 percentage points from the same period last year.

Internet companies spent 11.53 billion yuan on research and development, up 22.4 percent year on year. The pace was 10.9 percentage points higher than the growth in the first two months.