Government Technology

China's Internet Spreads a Complex Web


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September 10, 2007 By

As China rumbles ahead with an incredible speed of economic growth, the Internet has started to impact on China, bringing with it the beginnings of profound change to its society.

"The Internet is a revolution in China," says Guo Liang, deputy director, Center for Social Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), "there is no doubt that it is changing the ways of business, life and communication in China. And this is happening despite the fact China embraced the Internet much later than most developed countries."

But to understand the impact of Internet in China it is important to note how this medium has caught on in the world's most populous nation.

Ever since the commercialization of the Internet in China in 1995, China has been one of the most aggressive adopters of this medium. For instance, around June 1998 -- just about 30 months after the Internet made its debut in China, the country had notched up 1.1 million Internet users. That doubled in the next 6 months and reached 2.1 million by the end of that year. A half year later, the figure reached 4 million, and the user base continued to double every six months from then on until 2000, when the number touched about 17 million users.

Over the next six years even as the growth rate slowed, in absolute terms the Chinese continued to be cyber-converts in hordes. According to the recently published survey of China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the total number of Internet users increased from 111 million last year to current 137 million (representing a 23-percent increase).


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