In contrast with the continuing optimism about China's Internet
development, Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu.com, Inc, the
country's leading search engine company, is not completely
satisfied.
"Despite the fact that China has a huge number of netizens and
that more than 10 Internet companies have been listed in Nasdaq and
Hong Kong, I'm not satisfied with the development of the Internet
in China," said Li.
Li made his remarks at a panel discussion on the Future of
Internet in China on Sunday afternoon at the Boao Forum for Asia
Annual Conference 2006, which was held in Boao of Hainan Province
from April 21 to 23.
There are many problems challenging China's Internet industry,
according to Li.
Although China claims to be the No 2 in the world in terms of
the number of netizens, the Internet penetration rate in the
country is less than 10 percent which means 9 out of 10 people
don't have Internet access, he said.
The market value of the seven listed companies including Baidu,
Tencent, Sina and Sohu adds up to US$13 billion compared with a
market value estimated to be US$50 billion for Yahoo Japan alone,
he said.
How to change this situation? Li suggested wireless Internet
application technologies.
Li said that in the US the number of Internet users is larger
than the number of mobile phone subscribers, and in some Asian
countries like Japan and South Korea, these two numbers are
similar. However, the ratio in China was 1:3.8.
In Li's opinion, this was a problem but also a good
opportunity.
He said third generation wireless technologies (3G) would be in
large scale use during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and this would
help to increase the number of Internet users.
"If wireless Internet can develop in a favorable environment,
100 to 200 million handset subscribers could become Internet users
through 3G wireless technology and be able to enjoy the
high-quality services." Li said.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Yuan Fang, April 24, 2006)