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To: DiViT who wrote (39250)	3/12/1999 4:00:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Internet use in China........................................... chinadaily.net Internet use in China crucial for development WITH the most dynamic economy in the world, China cannot help being captivated by the Internet. But the development of this international network in the country is still far from mature because of various economic and cultural factors. Research institutions were the first Internet users in China. The launch of the Computer Network Information Centre of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinanet by the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1994 marked a further development _ more than 100 non-governmental computer service centres have sprung up across the country. Meanwhile, commercial Internet service providers began to provide Chinese citizens access to the web. The service of the domestic system focuses on science, technology, education and communications. So far China has 1.17 million Internet users. Now engaged in the primary stages of Internet development, China is faced with the problem of how to make full use of the Internet. According to China Consumer News, high prices on registration for surfing on Internet and low on-line speed have slowed the market's development in China. According to a survey published in the newspaper, Internet use in China is still expensive for ordinary people. It costs US$2 an hour for individuals who pay a US$12-14 fee for installation. The monthly salary of 40 per cent of Internet users is below US$125, the newspaper reported. Although the number of Internet users grew fast, almost all the Internet service providers in China ran in red in 1997, and things have not changed much since. One of the reasons is that China's Internet service providers have to lease lines from China Telecom. China Telecom's charges on the lines account for nearly 80 per cent of the total costs of Internet service providers. Low speeds in making connections frustrates most Internet users. Meanwhile, as a driving force of Internet growth, China's network infrastructure is still insufficient to support a potentially large number of Internet users, according to China Business Times. For Chinese Internet users, gaining access to the Internet requires only a PC and a phone line, but popularization of telephones and computers in China is still low. Also, on-line language barriers because of insufficient Chinese language content and service are inconveniences for many Chinese Internet users. The Internet has been an English-dominated medium since its inception. The lack of Chinese content results from a chicken and egg problem. The Chinese-language content is small because of the lack of a market, and the market is small because of the lack of content. As a result, most frequent Internet surfers in China are people of academic or technical professions with a good command of English. The remaining users only use the Internet for sending e-mails or playing games. They ignore a wealth of information. Hopefully, the recent launch of the China World Web, ChinaBiG, and a Chinese-language version of Yahoo!, with new high-profile content, will attract more people to surf the Internet. But the reality is that a large part of the content on the Web will still be in English. Despite all these negative factors, China's Internet market, crucial to the development of the nation's information industry, the future lifeline of the national economy, enjoys bright prospects. Since the Internet will allow individuals and companies to make global contacts, create corporate or brand images as well as learn about financial and trade information, those with Internet access will have a distinct advantage. As more and more enterprises are making efforts to improve management during the economic restructuring, the Internet offers unique advantages in offering training courses, discussion forums and in providing economical methods of business communication through e-mail and Internet telephony as well by helping keep enterprises informed of the latest changes in the global market. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 01/06/99 Author: Xiao Zheng Copyright© by China Daily