Misiek Piskorski, Harvard Business School
Misiek Piskorski, Harvard Business School
Internet in China
Internet in China
The size of the Chinese Internet is staggering. There are almost 600 million Internet users in China now more than in any country in the world, and that's just 44% of the Chinese population. Chinese users are more engaged than users in other countries. Already in 2011 the Chinese spent more time on the Internet than watching TV, while in the U.S. this crossover is predicted to happen only this year. More than 75% of them regularly contribute content online, but only less than a quarter of Americans do. And users in China spent more money on e-commerce in 2013 than Americans did. Furthermore, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a host of other services are banned in China, which allowed local Internet giants, such as Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu to emerge, and compete with each other. In this talk, we will examine why Chinese internet users are so engaged, before analyzing how competition between Chinese Internet giants is likely to play out, and what this means for the Western Internet.