Preparing for the future

Yuan Quance, a student of the Emerald City Branch of Beijing Primary School, began to learn programming by using Scratch－a coding tool developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology－more than four months ago.

The 9-year-old has since created around 20 coding works on kada.com, a new NetEase online service that aims to gather Scratch enthusiasts and popularize coding education among youth.

As one of the largest of its kind in China, Kada already has 2 million registered users. It provides free coding curricula to around 5,000 schools, and has launched a project to train 10,000 teachers in innovative programming.

Ding Lei, founder and CEO of NetEase, says he hopes Chinese children can enjoy coding, just as he did in his adolescence.

Ding is one of the leading figures who have reshaped China's internet industry. The 47-year-old had wished to write a computer program after reading Tsinghua University professor Tan Haoqiang's influential book BASIC Language when he was a freshman in high school.