China has been on the Internet intermittently since May 1989 and on a permanent basis since 20 April 1994,[1] although with heavily censored access. In 2008, China became the country with the largest population on the Internet and,, has remained so.[2] 1.09 billion (77.5% of the country's total population) use internet in China.
China's first foray into the global cyberspace was an email (not TCP/IP based and thus technically not internet) sent on 20 September 1987 to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, reading, "Across the Great Wall, towards the rest of the world" .[3] [4] This later became a well-known phrase in China and, was displayed on the desktop login screen for QQ mail.[5]
From 1995 to 2004, internet use in China was almost entirely in urban areas.[6] By 2003, less than 0.2% of rural people had used the internet. In 2004, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology began the Connecting Every Village Project which promoted the use of telecommunications and internet in rural China. Beginning in late 2009, the program began building rural telecenters each of which had at least one telephone, computer, and internet connectivity. Approximately 90,000 rural telecenters were built by 2011. By 2011, 89% of administrative villages had internet access.
China replaced the U.S. in its global leadership in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth in 2011. By 2014, China hosts more than twice as much national bandwidth potential than the U.S., the historical leader in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth (China: 29% versus US: 13% of the global total).[7]
China began implementing a National Broadband Strategy in 2013. The program aimed to increase the speed, quality, and adoption of broadband and 4G networks. As of 2018, 96% of administrative villages had fiber optic networks and 95% had 4G networks.
Wireless, especially internet access through a mobile phone, has developed rapidly. The affordability of mobile phones and internet data in China has resulted in the number of mobile internet users in China surpassing the number of computer internet users.[8] 500 million were accessing the internet via cell phones in 2013.[9] The number of dial-up users peaked in 2004 and since then has decreased sharply. Generally statistics on the number of mobile internet users in China show a significant slump in the growth rate between 2008 and 2010, with a small peak in the next two years.[10]
In 2015, the State Council promoted the Internet Plus initiative, a five-year plan to integrate traditional manufacturing and service industries with big data, cloud computing, and Internet of things technology. The State Council provided support for Internet Plus through policy support in area including cross-border e-commerce and rural e-commerce. Various regulatory bodies promoted Internet Plus within their sectors.
In April 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) proposed that "satellite internet" should be a part of new national infrastructure. By the next month, Shanghai, Beijing, Fuzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Shenzhen had each proposed regional action plans to support the new satellite internet constellation project[11] with a goal to provide domestic China satellite internet to rural areas.[12] Beginning in 2019, US (SpaceX Starlink)[13] and UK (OneWeb, 2020)[14] [15] private companies had begun fielding large internet satellite constellations with global coverage; however China does not intend to license non-Chinese technical solutions for satellite broadband within the jurisdiction of Chinese law.[16]
An important characteristic of the Chinese internet is that online access routes are owned by the Chinese government, and private enterprises and individuals can only rent bandwidth from the state.[17] The first four major national networks, namely CSTNET, ChinaNet, CERNET and CHINAGBN, are the "backbone" of the mainland Chinese internet. Later dominant telecom providers also started to provide internet services. China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile control operate the internet exchange points through which incoming traffic must pass.[18]
In January 2015, China added seven new access points to the world's internet backbone, adding to the three points that connect through Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.[19] [20]
As of at least 2023, the internet in China is characterized by uneven development, with the adoption rate and availability of the internet varying by region and population groups.
According to a survey by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China had 1.09 billion Internet users by the end of December 2023, a 1.9% increase over the year before and a penetration rate of 77.5%. The proportions of users accessing the Internet via mobile phones, desktop computers, laptop computers. TVs and tablet computers were 99.9%, 33.9%, 30.3%, 22.5% and 26.6%, respectively. 51.2% of internet users were male, while the remaining 48.8% were female.[21]
English-language media in China often use the word netizen to refer to Chinese internet users in particular.[22] [23]
As of at least 2024, China has the largest number of internet users of any country. Consistent with the trends of other large and relatively linguistically isolated countries, Chinese internet users tend to focus their internet use on content that that is domestically relevant.
As of 2024, 20% of internet users around the world are Chinese.[24]
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) is the primary agency for data regulation[25] and content regulation.[26] It coordinates data regulation enforcement among relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the State Administration for Market Regulation. The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has the primary responsibility for preventing cyberattacks.
In 2009, China amended its Criminal Law to create a low threshold for the prosecution of malicious cybercrimes and illegal data sales.
Generally, China advocates for internet sovereignty and tends to prioritize cybersecurity more than personal data protection. Chinese policymakers became increasingly concerned about the risk of cyberattacks following the 2010s global surveillance disclosures by Edward Snowden, which demonstrated extensive United States intelligence activities in China. As part of its response, the Communist Party in 2014 formed the Cybersecurity and Information Leading Group.
The 2017 Cyber Security Law was also part of China's response to increased risks of foreign surveillance and foreign data collection following the United States surveillance disclosures. Among other provisions, the law has significant data localization requirements. It is a major pillar of the Chinese data regulatory environment.
Before the 2020-2021 Xi Jinping administration reform spree, the regulatory environment for internet companies was relatively lax because the government sought to encourage the development of the big data economy. The regulatory environment for tech companies subsequently became stricter and in 2021, two national data laws and a host of regulatory guidelines were promulgated, broadening the scope of government enforcement and increasing the penalties for personal data violations. After mid-2023, the government decreased its regulatory intervention in e-commerce and issued policies more supportive of the e-commerce sector.[27]
The 2021 Data Security Law classifies data into different categories and establishes corresponding levels of protection. It imposes significant data localization requirements, in a response to the extraterritorial reach of the United States CLOUD Act or similar foreign laws.
The 2021 Personal Information Protection Law is China's first comprehensive law on personal data rights and is modeled after the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.
In summer 2021, MIIT began a six-month long regulatory campaign to address a variety of consumer protection and unfair competition issues, including interoperability concerns, in the consumer internet sector. It held meetings with executives from major Chinese tech companies and instructed them that their companies could no longer block external links to competitors.
In 2022, the CAC issued measures and guidelines on security assessments for cross-border data transfers as part of an effort to institutionalize data transfer review mechanisms.
In July 2024, the CAC and the MPS released draft regulations that propose a voluntary digital ID number for all internet users nationwide instead of the current requirement for a phone number or personal ID number.[28]
As a result of public outcry over parent-child online gaming conflicts, the government issued legislation in the early 2000s.[29] In 2002, the government passed legislation which forbid Internet cafes from allowing minors. The Law on Protection of Minors was amended in 2006 to state that the family and the state should guide minors' online behavior. These amendments place "indulgence in the Internet" on par with misbehaviors like smoking and vagrancy.
In 2009, the government requested that to aid parents in monitoring what children were doing on the Internet, "Green Dam Youth Escort" software be pre-installed on personal computers sold in most parts of China (excluding Special Administrative Regions). This resulted in public criticism on the basis of privacy concerns, and the government abandoned the effort after several months.
The state requires online games to set limits for minors' playing time.
According to Kaiser Kuo, the internet in China is largely used for entertainment purposes, being referred to as the "entertainment superhighway". However, it also serves as the first public forum for Chinese citizens to freely exchange their ideas.[30] Most users go online to read news, to search for information, and to check their email. They also go to BBS or web forums, find music or videos, or download files.
As of at least 2023, the most used internet services in China are instant messaging and mobile messaging apps. In 2020, 99% of internet users in China used instant messaging, while 99.8% used mobile messaging apps.
As of 2019, 93.5% of Chinese internet users have used WeChat.
All websites that operate in China with their own domain name must have an ICP license from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Because the PRC government blocks many foreign websites, many homegrown copycats of foreign websites have appeared.[31]
| + Top ten most popular search sites in China As of 17 September 2013 By Unique visitors aged 15+, excludes traffic from public computers such as internet cafes or mobile phones Source: comScore qSearch[32] [33] | China | Share of searches (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 63.16 | ||
| 360 | 18.23 | |
| 10.35 | ||
| Soso | 3.62 | |
| 2.88 | ||
| Bing | 0.57 | |
| Yahoo | 0.48 | |
| 0.16 | ||
| other | 0.09 |
Baidu is the leading search engine in China, while most web portals also provide search opportunities like Bing, Sogou.
Efforts to establish state-owned search engines in China have not succeeded. Search engine ChinaSo.com, jointly managed by Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily, is active as of 2024 but has few users. State-run search engine Jike Search, the CEO of which was Deng Yaping, failed in 2013.
Although the Chinese write fewer emails, they enjoy other online communication tools. Users form their communities based on different interests. Bulletin boards on portals or elsewhere, chat rooms, instant messaging groups, blogs are very active, while photo-sharing and social networking sites are growing rapidly. Some Wikis such as the Sogou Baike and Baidu Baike are "flourishing".
Microblogs (weibo) have since 2009 become one of the most widely used internet services in China.
China is one of the most restricted countries in the world in terms of internet, but these constraints have directly contributed to the success of local Chinese social media sites.[34]
Since 2013, China is the world's largest e-commerce market. Its domestic e-commerce market was an estimated in 2016.[35] China accounted for 42.4% of worldwide retail e-commerce in that year, the most of any country.[36] In 2019, online retail sales were 21% of China's total retail sales. As of late 2022, approximately 850 million Chinese individuals shop online and sectors related to e-commerce employ 69 million people in the country. In 2023, nearly 50% of worldwide online sales took place from China.
Some local governments have created e-commerce platforms in an effort to facilitate sales of local products. With the exception of the business-to-business platform Yiwugo.com (created by the Yiwu city government and a state-owned enterprise), these platforms have not been commercially successful.
China has endeavored to offer a number of online mapping services and allows the dissemination of geographic information within the country. Tencent Maps (腾讯地图), Baidu Maps (百度地圖) and Tianditu (天地圖) are typical examples. Online mapping services can be understood as online cartography backed up by a geographic information system (GIS). GIS was originally a tool for cartographers, geographers and other types of specialists to store, manage, present and analyze spatial data. In bringing GIS online, the Web has made these tools available to a much wider audience.[37] Furthermore, with the advent of broadband, utilizing GIS has become much faster and easier. Increasingly, non-specialist members of the public can access, look up and make use of geographic information for their own purposes.[38] Tianditu is China's first online mapping service. Literally World Map, Tianditu was launched in late October 2010. The Chinese government has repeatedly claimed that this service is to offer comprehensive geographical data for Chinese users to learn more about the world.
The method of directly paying by online banking is required to be able to make online banking payment after opening online banking and can realize online payment of UnionPay, WeChat Pay, online payment by credit card, and so on.
This payment method is directly paid from the bank card. The third-party payment itself integrates multiple payment methods, and the process is as follows:
1. Recharge the money in online banking to a third-party.
2. Pay by third-party deposit when the user pays.
3. The fee is charged for withdrawal. Third-party payment methods are diverse, including mobile payments and fixed-line payments.
In 2013, Alipay overtook PayPal to become the world's largest mobile payment provider. As of January 2015, Alipay, owned by Alibaba Group has 600 million counts of users and has the largest user group among all online-payment providers.[39] It continues to be China's largest online payment service as of at least 2023. WeChat Pay remains a strong competitor to Alipay, with 37% of the Chinese mobile payment market as of 2016.
By June 2020, there were 805 million users of mobile payment in China.[40]
As of 2022, China is the second largest market for online games after the United States.[41] In 2023, the country has 668 million internet users playing online games and the industry was worth US$42 billion.[42] 53.8% of gamers are male, 46.2% are female.[43]
In 2007, the Ministry of Culture (MoC) and General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) along with several other agencies implemented the Online Game Anti-Addiction System which aimed to stop video game addiction in youth. This system restricted minors from playing more than 3 hours a day and required Identification (ID) checking in order to verify you are of age.[44]
Later in 2019, the Chinese government announced in November that gamers under the age of 18 would be banned from playing video games between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. In addition, gamers under 18 would be restricted to 90 minutes of playing during the weekdays and 3 hours of playing during weekends and holidays as per new guidelines.[45]
As of 2021, the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) further restricted rules limiting playtime for under-18s to one hour per day from 8p.m. to 9 p.m. and only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.[46]
See main article: Internet censorship.
The Golden Shield Project was proposed to the State Council by Premier Zhu Rongji in 1993. It is overseen by the Ministry of Public Security. As a massive surveillance and content control system, it was launched in November 2000, and became known as the Great Firewall of China. The governmental authorities not only block website content but also monitor the Internet access of individuals; such measures have attracted the nickname The Great Firewall of China.[47]
However, there are some methods of circumventing the censorship by using proxy servers outside the firewall.[48] Users may circumvent all of the censorship and monitoring of the Great Firewall if they have a secure VPN or SSH connection method to a computer outside mainland China.[49]
In 2017, the Chinese government declared unauthorized VPN services illegal, requiring VPN providers to obtain state approval.[50] Although China restricts VPNs, they remain widely used by private individuals.[51] State-owned enterprises or state institutions also use VPNs for official work. The Chinese government has authorized several official VPN providers. Those who develop or sell their own VPNs potentially face years in prison.
Different methods are used to block certain websites or pages including DNS poisoning, blocking access to IPs, analyzing and filtering URLs, inspecting filter packets and resetting connections.[52]
In 2009, motivated in part by its desire to prevent color revolutions, China banned Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.[53] It banned Google the next year. By blocking major international internet platforms such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, the Great Firewall has contributed to the development of domestic alternatives including Baidu, Renren, Youku, and Weibo.
The Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures, initially a humorous hoax, became a popular and widespread internet meme in China.[54] [55] These ten hoaxes reportedly originated in response to increasing online censorship and have become an icon of Chinese internet users' resistance to it.[56] [57]
The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued a directive on 30 March 2009 to highlight 31 categories of content prohibited online, including violence, pornography and content which may "incite ethnic discrimination or undermine social stability". Many Chinese internet users believe the instruction follows the official embarrassment over the "Grass Mud Horse" and the "River Crab". Industry observers believe that the move was designed to stop the spread of parodies or other comments on politically sensitive issues in the runup to the anniversary of the 4 June Tiananmen Square protests.[58]
The size of China's online advertising market was RMB 3.3 billion in the third quarter 2008, up 19.1% compared with the previous quarter. Tencent, Baidu.com Inc, Sina Corp remain the Top 3 in terms of market share. Keyword advertising market size reached RMB 1.46 billion, accounting for 43.8% of the total Internet advertising market with a quarter-on-quarter growth rate of 19.3%, while that of the online advertising site amounted to RMB 1.70 billion, accounting for 50.7% of the total, up 18.9% compared with the second quarter.[59]
Currently, Baidu has launched the CPA platform, and Sina Corp has launched an advertising scheme for intelligent investment. The moves indicate a market trend of effective advertising with low cost. Online advertisements of automobiles, real estate and finance will keep growing rapidly in the future.