{"id":16872,"date":"2008-02-01T16:07:21","date_gmt":"2008-02-01T23:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/"},"modified":"2008-02-05T14:25:49","modified_gmt":"2008-02-05T21:25:49","slug":"alternative-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternative Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/business\/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10608655\">The Economist reports<\/a> on China&#8217;s rapid Internet growth and the unique habits of Internet users there:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nThat such a big, increasingly wealthy and technologically adept country has embraced the internet is no surprise, but it has done so in a very different way from other countries. That is in large part the result of the government&#8217;s historically repressive approach towards information and entertainment. News is censored, television is controlled by the state, and bookshops and cinemas, shuttered during the Cultural Revolution, are still scarce.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;So what is the internet used for in China? Its most obvious use is to distribute free pirated films, television shows and music. Even though China&#8217;s censors do an excellent job of restricting access to content that might cause political problems, they are strangely unable to stem the flow of pirated foreign media. <\/p>\n<p>&#8230;When it comes to making money online, the biggest market involves the delivery of mobile-internet content to mobile phones. <\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Another big field is online multiplayer games, which have become so popular that the government has started to worry about their impact on adults&#8217; productivity and children&#8217;s education. Import restrictions and fear of piracy mean that the big foreign console-makers\u2014Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft\u2014have not made much headway in China. Instead, a different model has emerged, based around PC games played online. <\/p>\n<p>Although there are tight constraints on the provision of hard news, internet sites such as Sina and Sohu provide a steady supply of gossip, features, dabs of propaganda and slightly salacious stories and photos, and are constantly testing the boundaries of what is permissible. <\/p>\n<p>&#8230;The most dynamic area, and the hardest for outsiders to understand, is that of online communities, many of which are run by a company named Tencent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Economist reports on China&#8217;s rapid Internet growth and the unique habits of Internet users there: That such a big, increasingly wealthy and technologically adept country has embraced the internet is no surprise, but it has done so in a very different way from other countries. That is in large part the result of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[16142,6308,6331],"class_list":["post-16872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-revolution","category-sci-tech","tag-internet-culture","tag-internet-development","tag-internet-use","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Alternative Reality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alternative Reality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Economist reports on China&#8217;s rapid Internet growth and the unique habits of Internet users there: That such a big, increasingly wealthy and technologically adept country has embraced the internet is no surprise, but it has done so in a very different way from other countries. That is in large part the result of the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-01T23:07:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-02-05T21:25:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"186\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"177\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sophie Beach\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sophie Beach\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sophie Beach\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/7f19e31b674d57a7dc20aab8e908c663\"},\"headline\":\"Alternative Reality\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-02-01T23:07:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-02-05T21:25:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/\"},\"wordCount\":291,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Internet culture\",\"Internet development\",\"Internet use\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Information Revolution\",\"Sci-Tech\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/\",\"name\":\"Alternative Reality\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-02-01T23:07:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-02-05T21:25:49+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/alternative-reality\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Alternative Reality\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times (CDT)\",\"description\":\"Covering China from Cyberspace\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"width\":186,\"height\":177,\"caption\":\"China Digital Times\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/cdt\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/7f19e31b674d57a7dc20aab8e908c663\",\"name\":\"Sophie Beach\",\"description\":\"Sophie Beach is CDT's Operations and Communications Manager. 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