DATE=4/26/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CHINA INTERNET - FRENZY
NUMBER=5-46200
BYLINE=STEPHANIE MANN
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: It remains to be seen if the recent steep drop
in high tech stock prices will dampen Americans'
enthusiasm for investing in Internet companies. Yet,
enthusiasm for the new Internet economy is still high
in Asia. In China, the on-line economy has taken off
(grown dramatically) in the last six months. (In this
first of four reports) Correspondent Stephanie Mann,
just back from a month in Beijing, says Chinese people
are turning to the Internet for -- just about
everything.
TEXT: Every day in China it seems there is some new
Internet-related development. History fans can visit
the Confucius website and learn about the Chinese
philosopher who lived 25-hundred years ago. A new on-
line consumer complaint site allows people to register
their problems with shoddy products or poor service.
Chinese investors can buy and sell stocks on-line.
Rock collectors can view photos of stones shaped like
animals or birds at a website devoted to strange-
shaped rocks.
The head of an on-line bookstore, Peggy Yu, says
Internet fever has hit China.
/// YU ACT ONE ///
It is a frenzy. And I think it's natural,
because the Internet is really changing people's
lives in a very fundamental way. It's changing
the way people interact with each other - how
they get information, and how they stay
communicated, and how they make certain
decisions.
/// END ACT ///
Ms. Yu is co-president of Science and Culture Book
Infotech Company in Beijing. Its website, Dangdang-
dot-com, began selling Chinese language books on-line
last November. She says just about everybody in China
is starting or thinking about starting a dot-com
company.
/// YU ACT TWO ///
In the information age, or knowledge age,
information and knowledge are very important.
And the Internet is such a strong tool for
entrepreneurs and for management to get new
business ideas, new product ideas and to compete
on a knowledge basis with others.
/// END ACT ///
Ms. Yu sees the greatest potential for growth in
Internet use in China in the areas of education and e-
commerce. She says the Internet can be a powerful
tool to present the best teachers to China's millions
of students. And she adds, despite its large size,
China does not have many national chain stores, so the
Internet can help retailers reach more customers.
Ms. Yu and other business executives say China's
Internet-related market began to blossom in the second
half of last year, and they are optimistic about its
prospects.
Tom Lasater is chief executive officer of Vertical
Asia, a Hong Kong-based company that sets up what are
called vertical portals -- Internet sites that can be
either a destination or jumping off point for people
searching for very specific information or products on
the Internet.
Mr. Lasater started his company in March of last year,
and he says many people doubted it would work in
China. But that changed, he says, in July when a
collection of Chinese internet-related companies,
called China-dot-com, was listed on the New York stock
market and became an instant success.
/// LASATER ACT ONE ///
Over the next months, you had investment bankers
in Hong Kong quitting their jobs to start
portals. Everyone just started jumping in the
game. So, there's definitely a frenzy, so to
speak.
/// END ACT ///
Anne Stevenson-Yang, president of Twin Poplars, a
publishing and consulting firm in China, keeps track
of Chinese telecommunications issues. She says the
government in Beijing apparently considers the
Internet a tool to boost the economy and is strongly
promoting it. Ms. Stevenson-Yang says the Internet's
influence on the Chinese economy over the last six
months has been obvious.
/// STEVENSON-YANG ACT ONE ///
The economy was down. Everybody's businesses
were kind of lagging a little bit. There was
excess real estate space. Everybody was . not
too optimistic about the future. And then
suddenly comes dot-com. And real estate is, you
know, everybody is 90-percent full. You can't
get a phone line for your life. Salaries are
doubling by the minute.
/// END ACT ///
Ms. Stevenson-Yang says there is hope the Internet
will allow China not only to catch up with the world
economy, but perhaps to leapfrog (jump) to the
forefront of the new high-tech economy. She explains
that many Western countries are using technology that
is four to five years old and already outdated. But
China, she says, is bypassing some of that technology
and going straight to the newest types of systems.
/// OPT /// For example, Ms. Stevenson-Yang says some
areas of China are installing broad band
telecommunication systems, which can accommodate a
large number of connections to send and receive data
all at the same time - unlike traditional telephone
lines which allow only one form of transmission at a
time. /// END OPT ///
At the end of 1999, the Chinese government estimated
there were eight-point-nine million Internet users in
China. Tom Lasater says that number has risen in just
a few months to about 10 million, and he predicts that
by the end of the year China may have as many as 50
million personal computers, or P-C's, connected to the
Internet.
And Anne Stevenson-Yang says the Internet will be
accessible to even more Chinese people through other
forms of technology, like cable television, or new
wireless applications, including mobile telephones.
/// BEGIN OPT ///
/// STEVENSON-YANG ACT TWO ///
You can't expect average Chinese households to
get P-C's. Even manipulating the keyboard is
difficult for Chinese. And there's no
particular immediate use for a P-C in the
average Chinese household. But through the
cable (T-V) system, sophisticated well-financed
municipalities, like Shanghai and Shenzhen, are
already upgrading to two-way cable, so that will
provide access quickly.
/// END ACT ///
Ms. Stevenson-Yang says about 80 million Chinese
already have cable television.
She and Tom Lasater agree that new wireless computer
applications, called WAP, can be easily adapted in
China where many more people have mobile phones than
have personal computers.
/// LASATER ACT TWO ///
The ratio of computers to mobile phones in the
U-S is like 10 computers to one mobile phone.
In China, it's 10 mobile phones to one computer.
So, with WAP, it opens up a whole new avenue for
the Internet in China.
/// END ACT ///
/// END OPT ///
But Ms. Stevenson-Yang says new technology alone will
not be enough to sustain China's Internet frenzy. In
addition to infrastructure, she says Chinese companies
must pay attention to the content of what they offer
on the Internet. A high quality and wide variety of
content will keep attracting on-line consumers and
information seekers and will determine the success of
internet-related business. (Signed)
NEB/SMN/KL
26-Apr-2000 14:09 PM EDT (26-Apr-2000 1809 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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