From Asia Times Online:
From whatever perspective, the picture of China’s Internet sector looks quite rosy. The number of Chinese “netizens” amounts to 137 million, more than 10% of the country’s population. Total business turnover of the Internet sector in China is estimated by experts to be some 500 billion yuan (US$65 billion), accounting for 5% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2006.
Also, more than 80 Chinese websites recently squeezed themselves into the Top 100 listing by Alexa, which provides information on Web traffic to other websites. There could be more in the future with the sharp increase of local netizens.
Behind this rosy picture, however, growth in the profitability of many Chinese Internet companies appears to be losing steam – they reported narrower profit margins last year. Only a few, such as Baidu.com and Tencent.com, have seen profits continue to rise. [Full Text]
