Surf's up in China Recommended read for all DELL/Hi-Tech investors
Note: this article is taken from the Austin American-Statesman, Monday, May 4, 1998, TechMonday Section, page D1
(Picture of an "Internet Cafe" in Beijing)
At an Internet Cafe in north Beijing's university district, Chinese can surf the Net for 30 yuan per hour, about $3.75. Cafe manager Zhang Donghai, right, says the predominance of the English language prevents many Chinese from using the Internet. Cost is another constraint; a $1,000 Pentium II computer can cost an affluent worker three months' salary.
Internet use is surging behind the Great Wall
by Marcia Kunstel and Joseph Albright
American-Statesman International Staff
Beijing -- You can click on the Shanghai City Internet site and find up-to-the-minute prices on the Shanghai stock exchange.
Plus the beeper number of a "beautiful and available" Russian girl.
Plus Elvis Presley's birthday.
Probably nowhere in the world is the Internet evolving faster than in this behemoth of a nation, where the economy is hurtling into the future while free expression is stalled by security curbs from the past.
The Internet lives inside a strange cocoon of rules that threaten harsh punishments for anyone "spreading rumors," promoting feudal superstitions," or "injuring the reputation of state organs." Penalties include fine, jail or confiscation of the offending computer.
Yet, in the name of economic progress, President Jian Zemin's government is stimulating the Internet to expand at an astounding rate. It is China's great electronic leap forward, and nobody knows how long it will last.
China has designated information technology as a "national pillar industry" and is spending tens of millions of dollars to create Internet hubs across the country. Simultaneously, it is pushing Chinese industry to multiply the number of Chinese-language Web sites and to use the Net for "e-commerce."
Though the Internet is still mainly accessible to a young, affluent urban elite, it is growing so fast that already the central government has effectively lost its monopoly on the flow of information -- something all Chinese governments have guarded for centuries.
In just two years, the number of Chinese with Internet connections has jumped from 20,000 to 900,000. By December, users will hit 1.5 million, according to official projections. By 2000, some visionaries project 10 million users -- possibly even 20 million. That compares to an estimated 25 million Americans currently with access to the Internet.
"This is like the Wild West," says Chinese businessman Edward, Tian, 35, a Texas Tech-trained ecologist who in the past three years has become one of China's leading Internet entrepreneurs. "Our problem is that we cannot keep up with demand."
If you want to be mystified about where China is headed, check out what is already accessible from an Internet dial-up point in Beijing.
You can visit a "free Tibet" Web site promoting an anti-China rally in Washington. But you cannot access the Human Rights in China Web site in Hong Kong: That one is blocked by a Chinese censor's electronic filters.
You can read all the news from Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal and the British Broadcasting Company Web sites. But on most days, the censor's filters won't let you connect with the news Web sites of CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times and Reuters.
That is, unless you know how to set up your Netscape or Internet Explorer browsing software to bypass the Chinese filters. Many in Beijing can.
If you do set your browser to bypass the censor, you'll find that CNN and most of the other blocked Web sites pop on your screen just as quickly (sic) as they do in United States. It doesn't take a hacker's ingenuity to evade the filters -- it is a trick that appears in many users' guides.
In 1991, the population of personal computers in China was about 2,000, most of them locked inside closed scientific institutes. Now, about 4,000 new PCs are sold in China every day, of which 2,000 come equipped to make an Internet connection.
One child, one PC
One factor fueling the blazing demand for PCs is China's one-child-per-family policy. Even though a $1,000 Pentium II computer can cost an affluent parent three months' salary, many are eager to spend the money to propel their child into the best university.
In Beijing, some Chinese students without rich parents slake their Net-surfing thirst by dropping by one of three Internet Cafes operated by Internet promoter Edward Zeng, 35, a former State Statistical Bureau employee.
"We have targeted a hundred locations," an optimistic Zeng said of his growth plans.
His cafe in North Beijing's university district suggests that the Internet has already gone far beyond the business-promotion uses the government originally had in mind for the Internet.
(Photo) "I have very few friends, and so I go to the Internet to meet people. I used to just go home after work and that's all," said Su Ying, a frank 21-year-old.
Coaching her on her Net-surfing techniques was her boyfriend, whom she met while cyber-talking in Chinese characters in an Internet "chatroom" she accessed from the Internet Cafe.
Su, whose business is selling universal power sources for an electronics company, said she also finds customer through the "chat room."
Biology student Ye Qing, 25, said he uses the Internet to pursue his studies on genes in archives outside China. He also hunts down e-mail addresses of American universities so he can apply to graduate school.
"A more important reason is to learn some news from abroad, because here, news unfortunately is very limited," he said. "Internet news is very fast. I use Yahoo search. I think it is very surprising and interesting."
Language, cost barriers
The cafe manager, 23-year-old Zhang Donghai, said the predominance of the English language on the Net prevents many Chinese from using it.
"It's changing," said Zhang. "Now China is a big market for foreign companies like Microsoft. They are beginning to explore the Chinese market and establish Chinese sites."
Another constraint is expense, especially considering China's low wage scales. A Chinese computer owner who has a dial-up account pays 10 yuan -- about $1.25 -- for an hour of Internet connect time. American-style flat-rate monthly Internet accounts are unavailable.
At the Internet Cafe, the computer and dial-up connection is provided and the cost is 30 yuan per hour, about $3.75.
Su, a young well-paid professional who still lives with her family, feels she can indulge. She said she spends two-third of her $375 monthly paycheck at the Internet Cafe, and doesn't begrudge a jiao (about one penny).
End of Article
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