OPINION> Columnist
China on line
By Li Hongmei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-12-17 13:48

The New Year of 1996 marked the start of China’s Internet era with the launch of ChinaNet, the first ever nationwide information artery network. The Chinese people have since stepped into a new phase of life with their horizon suddenly broadened to the outside world. Abruptly besieged with the bewildering amount of information, they just ran wild and had no idea how to handle all this confusion brought about by the then so-called information explosion. In retrospect of the 30 years’ social and economic development, China can be divided into the entirely different two phases: self-enclosed China and accessible China; and it is with the advent of the Internet that the blockade ceased.

IT industry, born in the third wave of information revolution, has come to be known not only as a new mode in creating wealth but a mighty engine in propelling the whole nation’s progress. But the country’s still booming IT industry started up from a humble origin and a dimly understood concept in 1990s. In those days, the ordinary Chinese remained ignorant of Internet and deemed it a pastime toy invented by Americans to kill time. Even scholars then could hardly imagine the enormous potentials and values inbuilt in the nascent technology. ‘Why bother to get and deliver information by clicking on the keyboard, if the telephone and post office are both available?’ many could not help but raise the doubt.

In 1996, when Zhang Jingjun, then Director of the Database affiliated to Guangzhou Telecommunication Bureau, received a telephone call from Britain, complaining that an engineer form Rolls-Royce would be soon sent to Guangzhou, but nothing about the city could be found on Internet, let alone hotels and the like in the city, Zhang felt embarrassed and words failed her in giving a reasonable explanation. Then came a poignant question from the other side, ‘isn’t Guangzhou a city, but why is not available on Internet?’

The telephone call from Britain struck Zhang as odd, and prompted her to make a bold decision at the time within half a year—launching a website to showcase Guangzhou to the world. So was born gznet.com. Her aggressive undertaking swiftly captured the nationwide attention and also attracted the likeminded people. Ding Lei, CEO of Neteasy.com but then an Internet craze fresh from University, joined her coming along with a bilingual E-mail system co-developed by his IT fans team. Their cooperation turned out the country’s first free E-mail box, the famous 163.net, and molded the ‘Ding Lei legend’ in the Internet realm. In 1997, Ding built up his Neteasy.com and got it listed on the Nasdaq in 2000.

In the meantime, more and more returning overseas Chinese and hi-tech elites from Zhongguancun Zone, China’s Silicon Valley, began to shift their focus of business on the promising Internet. Very soon, Wang Zhidong, Wang Yan, and Zhang Zhaoyang rose to enormous fame in China, not just because of their colorful pioneering spirits, but more of their almost legendary way to create wealth. In those days, they acted as the ‘God Father’ of China’s emerging Brain Economy, and became the national idols widely admired among the Chinese youth. In late 1990s, China had been unprecedentedly embraced in the atmosphere of ‘Internet worship,’ which was embodied even in people’s everyday conversations—‘were you on line last night? Or I’ll check it out on net,’ just to name a few, showing not only a fashion but a tendency that Internet, as an indispensable part, had entered the Chinese household life.

Over so many years of ups and downs, China’s IT industry has survived the painstaking tests posed by the bubbles puffed up by the domestic premature market economy, and savored tears and glee delivered by the Nasdaq Stock Market. Perhaps it was far beyond the expectation of pioneers, when they started up in the disused warehouse or the dark and musty labyrinth of the apartment building basement, the Internet will one day prove to be a mixed blessing, or a double-edged sward.

Needless to say, some social evils like junk and fake information, unlicensed net bars and even cyber crimes would pop up with the much headway so far made by the Internet technology. But by no means should we ‘give up eating for fear of choking,’ as the old saying goes. Nevertheless, China’s IT industry has all along flourishing in response to the country’s double-digit economic growth all these years. Official figures from China Internet Information Center (CNNIC) show that China now possesses 1.92 million websites covering some 253 million netizens, and 84.7 million households have gained access to Internet. Considering its large population base, China’s IT industry will still bear watching and must point to a more brilliant future.