Right now China's Internet market is booming. With more users everyday the Internet has become a place of possibility for Chinese innovation. Companies like Giant Interactive and Shanda Interactive Entertainment are popular market watchers because of their potential to expand into social networking, given the popularity of gaming in China. These companies have experienced great growth and when compared to their fellow U.S. companies they win the race. It's not to say that the U.S. is out of the fight. With top companies like Google, we claim our right to compete. The soil might be rich in China's Internet market, but without the proper tools and know how their potential could be lost. The security measures that the Chinese government uses to filter certain things from the Internet could possibly inhibit innovation, BUT with the Chinese Internet user community growing it is a reality that U.S. companies will experience less growth in the future.
Article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE57R33420090828?pageNumber=1
Linked!:
http://e-marketingforsensiblefolk.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-will-chinas-online-presence.html
China is definitely going to slow the growth of U.S. companies in the near future, but by how much will be the interesting factor. I think one of the most important issues will be the regulations that their government will continue to impose. With so many regulations, it will be hard for Chinese entrepreneurs to see rapid growth. An example of this is online gaming. With online gaming being extremely popular in China, the government has put a time limit on online gamers.
ReplyDeleteI like that you mentioned the Chinese government's controls on internet content. Here's a little more on the topic, to satisfy your curiousity...
ReplyDeleteChina’s government initially implemented internet restrictions in order to prevent its domestic internet users from accessing pornography and other forms of vulgar and “sensitive” information. However, as the scope “sensitive” internet content has grown in recent years, so has the severity of China’s internet controls, perhaps to oppressive levels. That is, in addition to strict controls over sexually-explicit material, the restrictions have spanned to regulate media reports, social networking applications and any other forms of web-based technology that may facilitate the discussion of topics found controversial or objectionable by the government.
As a result, popular websites such as Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Twitter, Blogger, and Wikipedia have become inaccessible in mainland China. In addition, Google (the world’s most popular search engine) has been forced to alter its Chinese search results in order to remain operational in the PRC.
Well said, but I believe the online markets for China and the U.S. will remain relatively separate for a long time. Sure there are unifying mediums such as music, games, and film (these fields being all very taste dependent), yet these mediums rarely bring together the two cultures/markets (since they are simply passively enjoyed by people). Ultimately companies will still create products and innovations that are geared for their particular markets. Does China have a big online presence? Yes. Will it greatly impact the rest of the web? Probably not, at least not beyond the parts that it's already affected with its censorship requirements.
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