BEIJING - China received nearly 140,000 new software copyright registrations in 2012, a year-on-year increase of 27.33 percent, according to the latest figures.

The statistics were revealed Monday in a report on China's software copyright registrations in 2012, which was drafted by the Copyright Protection Center of China (CPCC).

Of last year's total registrations, eastern regions accounted for nearly 80 percent. Meanwhile, the central and western regions of China saw faster growth rates with increases eight and five percentage points higher than the country's average, respectively, the report said.

According to the report, last year's registrations for cloud computing software totaled 1,946, a year-on-year increase of 119 percent, while cell phone gaming application registrations reached 1,739, up by 74 percent year on year. China began to register software copyrights in 1992 in a bid to protect the rights of software owners.