The diffusion of the Internet in China

Abstract

The number of Internet users in China has grown from 8.9 million users in 1999 to 22 million in 2001. However, estimates of users alone do not give an adequate picture of the Internet in China. The Global Diffusion of the Internet (GDI) Project has developed a framework for looking at Internet diffusion at a country level across six dimensions. The Chinese government made the decision in 1996 to allow two organizations to run interconnecting networks that provide commercial global Internet connectivity. Under a strategy known as "letting the sons compete", it has authorized more and more state owned organizations to run competing interconnecting networks. Under this state-coordinated competition, China has diffused rapidly along all the dimensions of the global diffusion of the Internet framework. A world class backbone infrastructure is being built by multiple carriers. Almost all government agencies and most major businesses have a Web presence. However, though the infrastructure is being built and the cost of access is dropping rapidly, most organizations have not yet significantly redesigned their business processes to take advantage of the Internet.