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Internet becoming part of life for Chinese
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-07 11:45
Lu Li, a 23-year-old working with a foreign firm in East China's Shanghai, has
found surfing online indispensable in her daily life since she first accessed to
the Internet seven years ago.
"It has unfolded a new chapter in my life," she says, adding that she can
hardly imagine living without the Internet.
Lu is one of the new generation emerging in the country in thepast ten years,
who are learning, entertaining and shopping all electronically. A report
released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in July
indicates that China has 103 million netizens, or Internet users, like Lu Li.
That means one out of 13 Chinese uses the Internet. Ten years ago, there were
barely 50,000 Internet accounts throughout China. A survey on some 2,400 people
in five Chinese cities show that an average netizen spends 2.73 hours online
daily, reading news, sending or receiving emails, playing games, downloading
music, gathering background materials or chatting.
Driving force
Mao Wei, director of the CNNIC, hails the country's Internet population of
103 million as "a milestone figure," which represents a 100-time increase in
seven years.
In connection, 45.6 million computers across China have been linked to the
Internet, a 25.6 percent climb over the previous year.
What's more significant, Mao says, is that broadband users account for half
of the figure, standing at 53 million.
"Broadband has made things more convenient to the netizens, with more
services available to them," says Wang En'hai, an official with the CNNIC.
A major driving force of the rapid development of the Internetin China in the
past decade is the government's promotion. Since its formal integration into the
global networks on April 20, 1994,there were "information highway" projects in
the late 1990s to bring government departments at various levels to "go online,"
which made even remote governments on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau accessible to
the Internet.
Business is also a driving force. With the construction of four backbone
networks from 1994 to 1996, numerous start-ups and portal websites mushroomed.
Then, "in the late 1990s, dazzling web-page is a trump for companies to scrabble
for netizens," says Huang Chengqing, secretary-general of the Internet Society
of China (ISC).
"Now, they give more attention to providing value-added services to the
netizens, such as short messages (SMS), Global Positioning System (GPS), e-games
and searching engines," Huang says. "It signals a shift from a disorderly
proliferation to a more sound and practical development."
Despite some "economic bubbles" at its initial stage, the Internet has
promised good returns now. In 2004, Internet-related application services in
China generated an earning of 11.3 billionyuan (8.11 yuan to 1 US dollar), of
which 35 percent went to the blooming Internet-game industry.
Shanda, the largest Internet-game provider in China, earned 154 million US
dollars out of online-game business in 2004, when adozen Internet companies were
listed in the US stock market, signaling the second round of getting listed in
the overseas stockmarkets since 2000.Alibaba, the largest online commerce
company in China, received 82million US dollars worth of capital in February
this year.
Prospects of China's Internet market have drawn foreign companies as well.
MSN, a subsidiary of Microsoft, took the lead by setting up a joint venture
in Shanghai this year. Such big names as Google, e-Bay, Amazon and Yahoo! are
also deploying their expansion programs in China.
"China's Internet industry is embracing a spring," says IT analyst Wang
Zhong.
More choices
Internet has enriched the Chinese netizens' life with more choices. For Li
Jianlu, a Beijing-based netizen, it saves him the time for shopping. "I love to
surf on Dangdang.com to buy books," he says. "It's speedy, and it offers good
bargain prices."
In November 2004, more than 72,000 college graduates took partin an online
recruiting program in Beijing. In contrast, 31 recruitment fairs organized by
the city's education commission throughout the year attracted no more than
40,000 students.
And the Internet is playing an increasingly important role in pushing forward
social progress in China, with "profound influenceon the life of many Chinese in
a comprehensive way," observes Hu Qiheng, president of the ISC, on the 10th
anniversary of China's full access to the Internet.
On July 25, a live online broadcast in East China's Zhejiang Province
attracted the attention of 100,000-plus netizens, which allowed them for the
first time to watch online a session of the standing committee of the provincial
people's congress, the local legislature, which is traditionally met behind
closed doors.
"By watching live online broadcasting, Chinese citizens are endowed with a
chance to participate in the democracy-building process," comments Xia Xueluan,
a professor of sociology with Beijing University.
In fact, Zhejiang is not alone to apply the Internet to politics. The Beijing
municipal government already launched an online opinion poll in 2003. Logging
into www.beijing.gov.cn, local netizens can cast votes on 64 governmental organs
under the municipality. In two years' time, more than 140,000 netizens have
aired their views on the administrations' effectiveness, transparency and legal
awareness. And their votes on issues ranging from whether the city should lift
the ban on firecrackers to the area of buffer zone of the Forbidden City as a
World Heritage Site has been taken into consideration in policy making.
"Online appraisal has effectively improved the public organs' service
standard," observes Prof. Xia.
The Internet helps the administrators to get first-hand opinions from the
grassroots, thus making the policy making process more scientific, says Prof.
Cheng Weimin of Beijing University.
Even the country's leaders would go online for people's opinions on
government work. Before he gave a press conference during a session of the
National People's Congress (NPC) in late March, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
accessed to the xinhuanet.com tosearch for ordinary people's questions for him.
"The development of the Internet in China will not only lead to a transfer of
economic activities, but also change people's ideas about the public affairs,"
says Prof. Min Dahong, an expert on Internet communication with the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
Meanwhile, the Internet has partially given rise to Chinese people's
individuality. A vivid example is the prevalence of web-blog writing since 2002.
"The essence of web-blog is to share both information and thoughts," says
Fang Xingdong, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bokee, the largest blog website
in China, which has more than 2 million registered users.
By writing web-blogs, Fang says, netizens have shifted from "passive
receptors" to "active producers."
Li Shanyou, vice president of Sohu, one of the three largest portal sites in
China, agrees that the Internet has impelled a "grassroots" spirit.
Although there exists the digital divide, Prof. Xia Xueluan says the Internet
"is no longer a privilege enjoyed by a few in China, but a common area everyone
can contributes to."
"The Internet has expanded my horizon and deepened my communication with
others. In the realm of the Internet, I dream to fly higher," smiles the young
Lu Li.
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