Dotcom Gives a Boost in the Arm to Chinese EconomyDotcom will characterize the development of Chinese economy in the coming years, experts have predicted.Their optimistic forecast is based on the increasing number of commercial websites and the growing volume of on-line transaction volume. At present, China has about 600 commercial web sites, and the number increases by five each day. The on-line transaction volume is expected to reach 800 million yuan (US$96.74 million) by the end of this year, and the volume will top 20 billion yuan (US$2..42 billion) by the end of the year 2002, according to a report in the newspaper China Business News. In the Chinese e-commerce, securities, education, tourism, human resources, real estate, automobile, IT products, life, books, media, health and entertainment are the top 10 hot fields. By the end of the first quarter this year, there were about 200 commercial web sites in the health care and pharmaceuticals, and the number of real estate web sites even surpassed 200. Small cities and the hinterland are also jumping onto the wagon of e-business. The government is rendering support and co-ordination to the development of e-commerce. Many enterprises have worked out their internal e-commerce rules, the taxation, finance, securities, pharmaceutical and building materials sectors are actively promoting their on-line businesses. All these indicate that e-economy is taking shape in China. Lu Jian, CEO of www.enet.com.cn, said the Internet this year will be the "year of e-commerce." He divided the Internet development into three stages. The first stage is to focus on contents to attract more users, the second stage focuses on comprehensive e-commerce to provide on-line sales, and specialized web sites will characterized the third stage. Jiang Qiping, a noted IT expert, says that the integration of value-added contents of sector e-commerce and commerce platforms will help tap the advantage of the Internet in information services, promoting e-commerce into the stage of wide application. At present, many traditional enterprises are involving themselves in the Internet, particularly listed companies and enterprises with foreign investment. The re-orientation and going on-line of traditional enterprises is an important sign that China's e-business is developing and maturing. The wireless technology is also expanding the spectrum of e-commerce. WAP is now a chic as mobile phones become the end users of information and commerce in the Internet era, bringing "infinity" to the Internet. Now, China has less than 10 million Internet users, the numbers of mobile phone users and pager users stand at 50 million and more than 100 million respectively. This means a big market potential for the Internet with wider application of WAP. It is forecast that movable e-commerce revenues will top US$32 billion in three years. Earlier this year, Nokia signed an agreement with sohu (http://www.sohu.com.cn) to build Nokia WAP platform to provide movable Internet service. This service officially opened in May. A latest United Nations report indicates the global on-line transaction value in 2000 will reach US$377 billion, top US$ 717 billion in 2001 and reach US$1,023.4 billion in 2002. The report says the on-line trade volume will account for 10-251006253404f the world trade. Comparing to the global e-commerce trade, China still has a great potential to develop its e-commerce. |
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