"China is not on the Internet, it's basically an intranet. Everything is banned by the Great Firewall," says Sherman So, co-author of "Red Wired: China's Internet Revolution."
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With 338 million Internet users in June 2009, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China is no longer a niche market of the online industry.
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"The information gap between those who are from this part of the world and who know Chinese and those who are from another part of world and who don't is just so huge," observes So.
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While 23 percent of the Chinese population is now online, CNNIC's 2008 statistics sketch a relatively coherent portrait of the mainstream majority of them: 67 percent are below the age of 30; 73 percent have only a high school education or lower; 33 percent are students; and 28 percent fall into the lowest income bracket of under $75 per month.
Moreover, 78 percent go online at home and 42 percent log on at an Internet cafe. Once connected, 84 percent listen to music, 68 percent and only 57 percent e-mail.
In short, for the vast majority of Chinese, Internet means play, not work.
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"Forty percent go online at Internet cafes, which is the cheapest entertainment alternative you can find. It costs just 30 cents per hour. The poorest kid can afford that, and these Internet cafes can be found in the most remote regions.
"So actually the Internet is flattening out this information gap, if not material gap, because even the poorest kid in China can go online and get information. And because of piracy, they can also download lots of stuff for free."
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...China is growing from both foreign interaction and the new technological and political challenges of online culture and commerce. As the "Great Intranet" continues to expand and evolve, China continues to explore the fragile balance between censorship and control, and enterprise and innovation.
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