What does it mean that China is about to surpass the US in the number of broadband connections? Furthermore, what does it mean that the Chinese government still exerts a level of control over the content and communication that occurs online in China?
Broadband Connections
Source: Point-Topic 2008
The technology driven aspects of the US economy have been predicated on scale. Of course, it only makes sense that China’s position as the most populous nation in the world will also be reflected in internet usage. The US internet dominance has fostered an environment for innovation, e-commerce, and recent evolution of social media. Can the tides change in favor of an eventual larger scale Chinese internet economy? The US has already been walking a step behind Asia and Europe in the mobile space and the ramifications seem temporary, as US companies are finally holding their own and growing despite the control of the US carriers, which in part created the slow mobile web growth.
All things considered, with the near collapse of our financial services driven aspects of our economy, the new media and technology driven aspects of our economy seemed to be the potential shining star. I’m sure that our internet economy will continue to thrive amid the temporary set backs of the economy at large, but keep an eye on China…that is, if you were living under a rock and hadn’t been doing so already.
