Just happened upon a list complied by the China Internet Industry Survey Report listing the “Web 2.0 100 of China Internet Industry”.
Though not closely familiar with all the names on the list at first sight, I had run through some of the sites and seem to feel that there are 3 broad areas of growth which most of these top 100 sites mainly fall into:
Information Source / Search – These are the pack led by Baidu and Sohu which allow for Chinese to search for content in their own language, something that was difficult only a few years back when English was still the de facto language of the internet, forming a barrier to entry of sorts to the China. Auctions and Directory services (e.g : Alibaba and Naalee) have also been setup to bring more consumers to search and spend online.
Forums / Social Media – Relationships has always been an important cornerstone in Chinese culture and it is only nature to see the extension of this in the online world. Forums (or Bulletin Boards) have become a means for the new generation of Internet savvy youths to air views and make new friends (albeit virtual). Even the social media concept of Digg has been picked up and applied in TuDou.
Self Expression – As China liberalizes, the is more scope and willingness in self expression and blogging (BlogCN) are beginning to pick up steam. From the list of 100, easily 5 or 6 are catering for this new group of bloggers who wish for more self expression online.
Its is also notable that some foreign investors have been rather supportive of the growth of this market while others have scorned it development, likening it to be merely cloning successful web models from abroad.
But in any case, the development of the online arena in China (where only 8% of the people are online) is definitely still in the early stages and its likely that this industry will start to develop its own innovative models and concepts to further growth.
[source: China Internet Industry Survey Report]
[related : ReadWriteWeb - Top Web Apps in China ]
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