China Close To Becoming World’s Largest Internet Market By Users

he state-owned China Internet Network Information Center said that China’s total number of Internet users
- rose 53% to 210 million at the end of 2007
- up from 137 million at the end of 2006 and
- 162 million in June 2007.

According to the WSJ, China is now just five million users shy of surpassing the United States as the world’s largest Internet market

asr: see user comments which portrays:

4# Norman
Internet in China is completely different from here at the united states. In the US, internet becomes the backbone of business. It is essential tool for shopping, traveling, marketing and entertainment in additional to news and media. But in China, the internet is pretty much used for games, news and entertainments: video and music. Although the number of users is huge, most of users are playing internet games online. Yes, there are a lot of users who spend a lot of time on line. But the business value of the internet is low.
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45# lyy9981
As a Chinese living in Canada, I agree with posting #4 of Norman: the business value of Chinese internet is very low.

I did an experiment last year. I set up a Chinese website with Google AdWords. The website got hundreds visits in China every day, but Google AdWords didn’t record even one cent! In the same period, my another English website, which has only 30-60 visits per day, can generate $.30 - $1.00 dollar daily. Realizing how little value Chinese market was, I closed the website after one week.

This experiments taught me how tough Chinese internet market is. And for anyone who doesn’t speak Chinese and need to hire translators or programmers, the risk is even higher.

Also, don’t expect any original ideas would succeed in China. Because big Chinese websites can easily copy your ideas and promote their own clones with their huge networks and resources. Examples: Chinese version of Youtube （www.tudou.com） and Facebook （www.xiaonei.com）. Other examples: Yahoo China failed in China; and Baidu beats Google as China’s #1 search engine.

To sum up, Chinese internet has low value. If you don’t have much cash to burn, don’t go there.


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48# Norman
Post #45 got to the point! Thanks.

Just forget to mention that I post a very best book I have ever read on how to apply colleges in one of the most popular chinese website in US. There are over 3000 clicks in two days of the post since Chinese parents care about their children’s education very much. The book is linked to my amazon associate which is has 40% discount of retailed price. I am so surprised that not even one person bought the book! Not only in China, even Chinese website here has traffic no business value.