The latest statistical figures released by the state-owned China Internet Network Information Center reveals that China is due to surpass the United States as the nation with the most Internet users, some time this year.
The figure reported by the Chinese government institution was a 53 percent jump from 137 million Chinese Internet users reported at this time last year. The Sydney Morning Herald reports: China says number of Internet users rises to 210 million, could overtake US this year
"Currently China's online population is about 50 million less than that of the United States and is the world's second-largest," the agency, also known as CNNIC, said on its Web site. "CNNIC forecasts that (China) will become the largest online country in 2008," it said.
The U.S. Census Bureau said last year that about 218 million of the country's 310 million people used the Internet.
China promotes Internet use for education and business but tries to block the public from seeing material deemed pornographic or that opposes communist rule.
This latest figure only consolidates the fact that China is a very ripe market for web hosting. With a population of 1,323,128,240 [over 1.3 billion], China currently ranks as the most populous country in the world with the USA coming 3rd after India. China's current population is 19.83% of the world's total population whilst that of the USA is 4.55%. Economists are predicting that China and India would be the world's next super-powers in as soon as ten years time, going by the strong annual economic growth the two countries have been marking over the years.
Having realised all the above-stated points, many of the leading dot-com companies have opened shop in China to reap from the economic windfall: Google, Paypal, ebay, Microsoft, Yahoo etc
Now, China is not exactly a virgin market if the figures by WebHosting.info are anything to go by. Chinese web hosts share 2,735,314 domains amongst themselves whilst Chinese ICANN-accredited registrars have registered 3,275,345 generic domain names.
My point is simple: web hosting firms in other parts of the world that can target a section of their marketing website at the Chinese population stand to reap economic benefits from China's fast-growing Internet population. A website with a Chinese language version would be a first step though its important to point that many educated Chinese individuals can handle the English language fairly well. Read my previous post for some more ideas about how to go about this: SEO Web Hosting and how its good for you
Commented by: idris, 18 January, 2008
<p>yes it is true that china and india are fasted growing countries in the world. it is also predicted that chinese language will dominate the world... SEO for chinese websites will surely be in the first place to rank better in country specific search engines...</p>
Commented by: China Web Hosting, 19 January, 2008
Nice article, thanks for sharing. We are a web hosting company in Shanghai (although currently targeting primarily foreign businesses in China) and you are very right about the opportunity that is created in China in terms for web hosting companies, and the need to have a Chinese site as well. Nevertheless, there are a couple of barriers for foreign players in China:
-Web hosting is still very regulated, it is difficult for a foreign-owned operator to get an official license and offer web hosting legally in China.
-Sites hosted on overseas servers are very slow of access, due to what's called the "Great Firewall", so Chinese site owners still prefer to host within China if their visitors are primarily from there.
-Customer support: how are you going to support the average Chinese client who can't communicate in English?
-Payments: credit card penetration is still very low and Paypal non-existent. Even for those leads that want to purchase overseas hosting services, getting their payment to the service provider abroad is a problem.
Nowadays there are already many Chinese who host overseas, usually with larger well-known firms, but it is still a small % of the market, which is still shared by the thousands of web hosting companies that you can already find in China.
Commented by: Jim, 7 February, 2008
<p>Mass markets like China and India are growing because of the huge potential in volumes. I therefore agree that not only China will outgrow internet users, its the market to target now.</p>
Commented by: Domein registratie, 20 February, 2008
<p>Very nice article, thanks for sharing.</p>
Commented by: Kayol, 24 April, 2008
<p>Gotta love those .asia top level domains. I'm still not convinced that China will lead the global internet traffic & web hosting industry. They are very productive though.</p>
Commented by: Tony, 13 May, 2008
<p>Web hosting is still very regulated, it is difficult for a foreign-owned operator to get an official license and offer web hosting legally in China.<br />
-Sites hosted on overseas servers are very slow of access, due to what’s called the “Great Firewall”, so Chinese site owners still prefer to host within China if their visitors are primarily from there.</p>
Commented by: christina, 19 June, 2008
Well that doesn't surprise me... China seems to always somehow go ahead or compete with every country in almost everything... It is because of their people... They are also so united...
Commented by: Websites That Succee, 20 March, 2009
Thanks for the information. I really appreciate finding new things online.
Commented by: frances santiago, 19 April, 2009
It is for this and a lot more other reasons why China is still in the top three biggest economy around the world.
With the expected recovery this year on the Chinese economy, how do you think investment banks in China would fare? Do you agree with this -- http://www.topemployers.co.uk/teb/finance-jobs/NY_Wang/1/China-Banking-Jobs-for-Blue-Ocean-Strategists.htm
Commented by: D. Grafik, 13 October, 2009
Can someone highlight for me which are the biggest chinese webhosters and is it possible to create a website which is actually hosted in china, even so the busines is not located there?
thanks and "go china"!
Commented by: China QC, 6 October, 2010
The more I hear about China, the more I want to go! I'm a little scared about the quality control there, though...