A recent survey conducted by the Chinese edition of Fortune Magazine reveals, once again, that the Internet is going to be huge in China, and more sooner than later. Not only are the percentages of people who use the Internet steadily growing, but those don't use it have indicated that they plan to in the future.
Here are some of the survey's findings:
- 60 percent of the businesspeople in China are using the Internet.
- Of that 60 percent, 56 percent log-on at their offices, 43 percent go online at home, and 21 percent do so at both places.
- 96 percent of those polled cited the Internet as a useful source of business information.
- 61 percent said that the companies they work for have homepages, among which industries
sectors including transportation, law, tourism and hotels contribute are the majority.
- Nearly 50 percent of the state-owned enterprises have homepages
- Around 56 percent of private and collective companies do not have homepages.
- About 95 percent of those people in China who haven't yet used the Internet plan to do so.
- 93 percent believe that the Internet will play an vital role in their business development in the
future.
On a side note, Yahoo! Inc. today announced the launching of Yahoo! China, an Internet guide designed specifically for Web users in China. Located at www.yahoo.com.cn, Yahoo! China features more than 40,000 websites, news, finance and weather information relevant to the region as well as e-mail, instant messaging, and a personalized Web service, My Yahoo!. The new site is the 20th World property in Yahoo!'s comprehensive global network.
According to China's Ministry of Information Industry, the country will have approximately 4.5 million
Internet users by the end of 1999. This number is projected by research firm IDC to grow to around 9.4
million by the year 2002.