The Internet 互联网 | The China Story

Rise of the Netizen: 2003-2009

• June 2003: A young journalist with the online name ‘Mu Zimei’ (木子美, also written as muzimei and Muzi Mei) starts a blog in which she records her sexual experiences. After publishing a rather negative ‘review’ of her experiences with a well-known rock musician, her diary becomes an overnight Internet hit, read by millions of Chinese youngsters. The print media publish reports about her, and blogging becomes a household word
• January 2004: A young computer gamer named Li Hongchen wins the country’s first virtual properties dispute case: the Beijing Chaoyang District People’s Court orders Arctic Ice Technology Development Company, the maker of the game ‘Hongyue’ (Red Moon), to return game winnings, including virtual biochemical weapons, to Li, who protested after the items were stolen by a hacker. In the same month, the state-owned news agency reports that a new online game is introduced every ten days in China
• April 2005: Real estate tycoon Pan Shiyi starts a blog, becoming the first of many celebrities to start blogs in 2005 and early 2006
• 2006: A Chinese rival to Google, Baidu.com, begins to grow, reaching 63.7 percent market share. Google’s market share drops from 25 percent in 2002 to 19.2 percent in 2006. Google was slower and less effective than other search sites because it was hosted outside of China
• March 2006: Some government officials begin personal blogs drawing comments from the public that would never make it into traditional media. Among the bloggers are both People’s Representatives and members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference or CPPCC
• July 2006: A Chinese policeman starts what the People’s Daily calls the country’s first ‘police blog’. The police blog is an overnight hit, claiming more than one million visitors in its first two months
• November 2006: The first part of the Great Firewall of China, also known as the Golden Shield Project, goes into service