The Power of the Internet in China by Guobin Yang

Author:Guobin Yang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History/Asia/General
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2011-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

Source: CND, March 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999.

*This number is based on my estimate. According to CND, it had 47,600 subscribers among an estimated total readership of 150,000 in 1997. CND estimated that its readership had reached 180,000 by March 1999, but it did not publish the number of subscribers. Since 47,600 accounts for 31.7% of a readership of 150,000, it can be inferred that given a readership of 180,000, 31.7%, or 57,120, are subscribers.

Inside China, the earliest online communities were BBS forums among college students. BBSs were first opened in universities and then in commercial portal sites. Thus the first contingent of BBS-based online communities appeared among college students. Tsinghua University led the way, where China’s first BBS, called SMTH (short for Shuimu Tsinghua), opened in 1995. Others quickly followed at Beijing University, Nanjing University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, and so forth. In November 2000, Sohu.com listed seventy university-based BBSs.24 In almost all cases, one BBS system supports numerous forums classified by topics of interest. For example, on December 8, 2000, Beijing University had 149 forums in its BBS and Xian Jiaotong University had 129 forums.25 Forums about current affairs and personal relationships were usually popular, but the broad range of topics indicated that people joined the forums for diverse reasons. Tables 7.2 and 7.3 list the ten most popular BBS forums in Shantou University and Xi’an Jiaotong University respectively, as of May 21, 2000. Table 7.4 shows the top ten BBS forums in Beijing University on April 23, 2002.

TABLE 7.2 Top Ten Forums in Tulip BBS, Shantou University, May 21, 2000

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