China Emerging_ 1978-2008 - Xiao-bo , Wu [68]
A crowded Internet bar (November 2007).
frantic wave of overseas initial public offerings (IPO) of Chinese Internet companies.
In the past fifteen years, the Internet in China has grown tremendously from a base of nothing. Not only has the Internet formed a real industry, but also it has penetrated every nook and cranny of the economic life in the country. The Chinese are very proud of this industry for one special reason: Unlike other industries, this one has allowed the local Chinese to compete successfully against their international rivals. Even a behemoth like Google is not exempt from the challenge: Its market share in China amounts at most to half of that of Baidu. Another feature of China’s Internet scene is that most companies purchased by overseas investors have run into problems. In the search engine field, “3721” ceased to exist, after being bought by Yahoo. Joyo, in the B2C business, sank into torpor after being purchased by Amazon. EachNet, after being bought by eBay, experienced a frontal attack from Alibaba’s Taobao.
The Internet seems to create miracles. It is like a big kiln that can produce ceramics of incomparable beauty but only after the pot has been seared in flames. It gives one hope for China’s future because this industry did not exist when reform and opening up began. The “Me Generation” (children born after 1980), following in the footsteps of the generation who started their Internet businesses, has now begun creating their own success stories. Youngsters are now overturning the very foundations of business. They are a generation born into a globalized world. They regard the Internet as a seamless part of their daily lives. They have grown up in households and in a society that is already “open” and released from the restrictive traditional system. The well defined ownership system is no longer a burden. They are more fortunate than any former generation of Chinese business people. If China is to bring forth world-class companies and entrepreneurs, it may well be that these companies and entrepreneurs will come from the realm of the Internet.
Rise of a Great Nation
A
television show titled “The Rise of the Great Powers” was broadcast by CCTV in the spring of 2007; the show attracted a huge audience. It discussed the evolution of nine great nations in the world over the past five hundred years. China was not included among them. There was no
special advertising for this show and it was not aired on prime time; despite this, the program became the most hotly debated subject in intellectual circles and on the Internet. An unprecedented passion for a great nation seemed to have struck a chord in everyone.
A newlywed couple poses before the Bird’s Nest under construction in Beijing. They were surrounded by some curious peasant workers.
In many ways, “Chinese-ness” was now very much in fashion. At the beginning of 2007, many economists were predicting that China’s GDP would surpass that of Germany, making China the third largest economy in the world after America and Japan. People began to feel more self-confident. Traditional culture was in vogue. A show called “Experts’ forum” that discussed traditional Chinese culture became the most popular late-night show on television. Two professors talked about such things as the Three Kingdoms and the Analects of Confucius and were instantly the rage. Their books always occupied a prime spot in bookstores, and wherever these professors went, they were mobbed like movie stars. S.H.E., a popular