Opinion: Outlook for those looking to cash in on Chinese Internet growth is not particularly good, via InfoWorld:
The semi-annual report from the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) is almost always a cause for exuberance. There are millions more Internet users in China! Yippee! Hooray! Now if we could just sell one (or one more) of something to every one of those 137 million users, we’ll be rich beyond our wildest dreams!
Unfortunately, anyone who reads the 122-page report (in Chinese, available here ) will realize that the news, especially for those looking to cash in on Chinese Internet growth, is not particularly good.
The raw numbers make China the world’s second-largest Internet market, although that’s been true for a while now. An overzealous China Daily, the country’s official English-language newspaper, claimed Thursday that China would surpass the United States by 2010, even though current growth rates of about 23 percent per year does not support that. In fact, Internet growth has slowed slightly since its peak in 2001 and 2002. [Full Text]
