(Yicai Global) Jan. 22 -- Revenue growth at China's large internet companies, a group that includes Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, slowed to 21.4 percent last year from 24 percent the year before.

Total revenue was CNY1.21 trillion (USD175.3 billion) in 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said today, while operating profit rose 16.9 percent to CNY102.4 billion, beating 2018's 3.8 percent gain.

Spending on research and development among the firms rose 23.1 percent to CNY53.5 billion. That was 4.1 percentage points faster than in 2018.