DISQUS

Mashable - The Social Media Guide: 2008/07/25/china-internet-users/

  • Barbara Ling · 1 year ago
    My husband had mentioned something similar about this to me awhile back.

    Doing business with China, however, can be fraught with peril (you think Americans are political, that's preschool...)

    Data points, Barbara
  • addebook · 1 year ago
    China is coming!
  • Small Axe · 1 year ago
    China also has a middle class which is growing very rapidly, a huge & growing pool of university graduates. The growth in sheer numbers is consistently a sign of potential commercial opportunities.

    When combined with the fact that the Chinese economy is actually in robust health = big spending power; it stands to reason that China's growth will be meteoric as it is a demand which is being driven by a huge upwardly mobile population.

    Truth be known, the internet in China will be a jet-fuelled big-money explosion which will make a significant contribution to the bottom line of many corporations for years to come. The same can be said of India.
  • antmam · 1 year ago
    How does India fit into this equation? A democratic country, almost as big, and growing faster, without the internet controls.

    Seems like the bigger and safer opportunity is here.
  • tom · 1 year ago
    India is far from democratic. They used to support the biggest Communist in the world, the Soviet Union, so I wouldn't do business with them. Their market look like crap just a week ago. If you want to do business in China, just do what I do. You just need to talk a communist official. One words from them is done. In India you need to go though the people, officials, and regulators. Just a week ago, Investors running from India faster than a cheetah. "India economy hits a wall" Googles it.
  • Nameo · 1 year ago
    India is not "far from democratic", it's a democracy, period. China isn't. They used to support USSR, yeah, and so what ? USA have supported a lot of dictatorship (Irak, for instance), does it make of the USA a country "far from democratic" ? Then, there is no democtratic country in the world.
    But it seems you prefer a communist dictatorship rather than a democratic country that "used to support the biggest communist, blablabla".
    And for the record, being the biggest communist country is not the point. There's a difference between a communist country and a communist dictatorship.
  • Nicole Simon · 1 year ago
    While the market is huge, it depends on how many of those people will be english speaking to start to be relevant to the international market.

    As mentioned by antmam, india already has a high percentage of people speaking english as a more or less native language, and they do not make that much of a splash.

    To gain full access to that power, otherwise the companies will have to start to speak chinese in its different varieties ...
  • Jess · 1 year ago
    An important mile stone for China for sure...but with China's current restrictive climate, the most important attributes of internet usage (freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas and knowledge) are still not completely within its reach.
    Once China adopts a more liberal and realistic policy by not censoring its citizens I'm confident it will become the next true Superpower. And maybe then we here in the US get our heads out of our spoiled butts and reach for the stars again too.
  • Shahzahm · 1 year ago
    The US economy would be helped greatly if Chinese web users were able to take part in our commerce system. But the comparatively low rate of credit card usage among Chinese consumers is a big problem. Furthermore, many banks in the US cant/won't work with Chinese banks on a bank draft system (online checks for example).

    So while there are more Internet users in China there is still some major work to do before US internet companies will see the benefit - if ya can't charge 'em, they can't buy from you.
  • ZaggedEdge · 1 year ago
    The real question is are these people literate in english and do they have money to spend?
  • Nameo · 1 year ago
    No, the real question is : "do you speak chinese ?". You'd better, very soon.
  • dainu zodziai · 1 year ago
    I think China companies have much more possibilities to grow than companies from outside China. A lot of legal issues may be huge barriers and China's Internet companies could look positive to "own" government