User:Eugenekim0604/Internet in China

Online gaming
Main article: Online gaming in China

As of 2009, China is the largest market for online games. The country has 368 million internet users playing online games and the industry was worth US$13.5 billion in 2013. 73% of gamers are male, 27% are female. Since then, the number of gamers in China has risen to over 720 million.

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.

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 10pm and 8am. 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.

In 2019, E-sports was classified as a professional sport by China’s National Bureau of Statistics. China’s e-sports market revenue alone was estimated to exceed US$25.5 billion. China has the largest e-sports market with more than 5,000 estimated e-sports teams. Top e-sports players are generally discovered and have the most talent in their teens to mid 20’s. With over 400 million e-sports fans in China, e-sports are danger of losing a significant portion of their market due to new restrictions. There are concerns that China’s gaming restrictions could set back their ambitions to further develop the e-sports sector.

As of 2021, the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) further restricted rules limiting playtime for under-18’s to one hour per day from 8p.mon. to 9 p.m. and only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The gaming market in China will generate an estimated $46.5 billion in revenue by the end of 2021. In Addition, a new statistic has shown that 62.5% of Chinese minors play online games, and 13.2% of underage users play mobile games more than two hours a day.

Rules regarding video games in China are implemented to censor content that does not highlight the correct values and accurate understanding of China’s history and culture. Types of content that could be censored by NPPA’s standards are, games with blurred moral boundaries, games with gay romances and effeminate males, or games that provoke controversy or change history. 213 video game companies agreed to sign self-regulation pacts which commits them to avoid such content discouraged by the Chinese government or paints China in a negative manor or politically harmful way.

Social Media
China is one of the most restricted countries in the world in terms of internet, but these constraints have directly contributed to the staggering success of local Chinese social media sites. The Chinese government makes it impossible for foreign companies to enter the Chinese social media network. Social media in China is very carefully tracked, they have one of the most sophisticated system of censorship[12]. Without access to the majority of social media platforms used elsewhere in the world, the Chinese have created their own networks, just like Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, and Foursquare – but with more users – which is why every global company pays attention to these sites. Some Chinese famous social medias are Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo, Renren, Pengyou, QQ, Douban etc. And in recent years, the use of WeChat has become more and more popular among people in China.[citation needed]

There are more than 300 million users of social media in China. It is very common for users active on social media to have several social media accounts. The users in China are more active than users in any other country. People are using social media as one of the main sources to get their news from. The news available on these sites gives a more in-depth look into events that traditional media would generally downplay. The younger generation is using social media to question the government’s decisions and organize rallies and protests for causes they believe in. Social media in China is very carefully tracked. They have one of the most sophisticated systems of censorship. It is also used for online communities, blogs, and microblogs. Blogging grew in popularity in 2004. A year later social networking sites with chat features were launched[12].

There is a lot of competition within the social media space. In order to attract consumers, companies will have employees write positive feedback about them on social media and negative comments on accounts of their competitors. The Chinese social-media market has very unique characteristics and it is very important for companies to understand that in order to succeed. They need to create content that is user oriented and authentic, develop processes to interact with consumers in a way that aligns with company values, etc.[12].

Online shopping
The rapidly increasing number of Internet users in China has also generated a large online shopping base in the country. E-commerce in China has increased by a significant amount over the last decade [7]. China has become the world’s second-largest market for e-commerce [7]. A large number of Chinese internet users have even been branded as having an "online shopping addiction" as a result of the growth of the industry. The number of online shoppers has exponentially increased from below 34 million in 2006 to over 850 million users in the last 10 years [7]. This large increase is partly due to larger cities such as Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou but the main driver behind this are the smaller cities[11]. People in these smaller cities are now using these online shops to purchase items that are not present in the retail shops in their cities. With the largest digital buyer population in the world they also account for the worlds most tech savvy population [6]. According to Sina.com, Chinese consumers with Internet access spend an average of RMB10,000 online annually. Over 90% of e-commerce sales are carried out through mobile devices[11]. There are 932 million mobile internet users in China. Being so high in demand they have a very large market it is highly competitive between local companies due to their ban on most foreign organizations. Alibaba Group is a leader in e-commerce and is represent through various other sites [6].

The Top 10 Chinese platforms by Monthly traffic are: Taobao, JD.com, Tmall, Alibaba1688, Suning.com, Xiaohongshu, Amazon China, Vipshop, Dangdang, Kongfz.com [6].

Some recent innovations in the online shopping space have been live streaming, short videos, and social networking. These things are transforming online shopping into a fun and interactive activity. Another advancement has been the rate at which consumers are able to get goods delivered to them in a safe, convenient, and cheap matter. Around 10 years ago next-day delivery was only available in around six cities, but now it's available in over 200 cities, and the country's largest delivery company, Cainiao, takes an average of 48 hours to deliver packages nationwide[11].

Cyber Attacks
In the second quarter of 2014, China was by far the main country of origin of cyber attacks, with 43% of the worldwide total.

Since then, China still holds its title of having the highest percentage of cyber attack originations, with it hosting approximately 28.6% of the world’s cyber attacks. Although this number has seemingly lowered from its 43% holding in 2014, the number of cyber attacks originating from China has actually gone up considering that the world experienced a 440% increase in global cyber attacks.

Although China served as the origin point of the majority of cyber attacks throughout the world, it still faces its own problems with cyber attacks from domestic hackers and other countries. In fact, “Chinese research shows China is the world's biggest target of cyber attacks”. Knownsec Information Technology, a security firm in Beijing, confirmed this by reporting that Chinese organizations experienced an average of 800 million cyber attacks in 2018. The report from Knownsec Information Technology noted that 97% of the cyber attacks on Chinese organizations were from domestic hackers, however tens of millions of the attacks still came from other countries’ governments.

Notable Cyber Attacks

In January of 2021, “hackers from a Chinese-linked group known as Hafnium began exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange”, where they inserted backdoors into Microsoft’s system in order to return later. Chinese intelligence also learned of these vulnerabilities left by Hafnium and attempted to quickly exploit these vulnerabilities before the issue was identified by the public domain. This led to other China-based groups exploiting Microsoft’s vulnerabilities, leading to what is described as a “mass pile-in” of cyber attacks with targets primarily being “key industries and governments worldwide”. By the time Microsoft publicly announced this vulnerability and offered a patch to cover it in March, the damage was already done, with “Around a quarter of a million systems globally [being] left exposed - often small or medium-sized businesses and organizations - and at least 30,000 [being] compromised”.

In July of 2021, Massachusetts based company Moderna, a leading company in the research and production of Coronavirus vaccinations, was made aware that they were potentially targeted by publicly indicted hackers from China identified as Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi. Prosecutors stated that Li and Dong were contractors for China’s Ministry of State Security, but China has denied all allegations in hacking foreign governments and companies, calling the accusations “baseless”. Despite China’s denial of these hacking accusations, evidence seems to lean towards the contrary with an unnamed “security consultant familiar with multiple hacking investigations involving premier biotech firms over the last year [stating that] Chinese groups believed to broadly associated with China’s Ministry of State security are one of the primary forces targeting COVID-19 research, globally”.

Internet advertising market
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 and Google Inc. remain the Top 4 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.

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.

In 2020 the internet advertising market in China had a 14% growth that year and nearly $77 billion dollars was made from internet advertising. Even with a 14% growth these figures have slowed down for the past 3 years. China has big market for internet advertising via mobile devices. In 2018 the market share for internet advertising via mobile devices was at 70% then it went up 15% to 85%. Key Opinion Consumers have a great control and influence over the market that is reconstructing the way marketing reaches people.

There are very strict rules and regulations to Chinas internet advertising market. Paid advertising for online advertisers must be clearly stated. Limited times offers must have a end date advertised, it just can't say until it ends.

Censorship
Main articles: Internet censorship in China and Internet censorship

The Golden Shield Project was proposed to the State Council by Premier Zhu Rongji in 1993. As a massive surveillance and content control system, it was launched in November 2000, and became known as the Great Firewall of China. The apparatus of China's Internet control is considered more extensive and more advanced than in any other country in the world. The governmental authorities not only block website content but also monitor the Internet access of individuals; such measures have attracted the derisive nickname "The Great Firewall of China."

China seeks to blockade Internet access from its citizens to prevent netizens from communing with foreign organizations, learning and inciting drastic change to a policy that currently favors the government, and propel government reform by herding and backing up controversial online petitions. In particular, the government is insistent on its internet control because it seeks to halt and erase any discourse that may be contradictory to its policies. These policies which the government doesn't want its citizens revolting against include anti-corruption and anti-pollution, which has previously led to widespread protests and terrorism. As with many countries, citizens could communicate and riot using online messaging services. While around 904 million users can access the internet, the strict control on what is available to them angers many citizens who feel trapped in their country's way of thinking.

In order to implement censorship laws, China has hired between 30,000 to 50,000 internet police. Their purpose is to enforce censorship by blocking websites China deems offensive, conducting surveillance, and monitoring emails. Since there is no official documentation on what is censored and what the special internet police are searching for, China hopes that the anxiety installed will cause netizens to self censor their content online. Censorship is enforced using filters that automatically block out certain words and information and the aforementioned internet police.

However, there are some methods of circumventing the censorship by using proxy servers outside the firewall. 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.

Disruptions of VPN services have been reported and many of the free or popular services are now blocked. Major global corporations, such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, have signed a private deal with China. The details of the agreement have not been revealed to the public, but it allows the companies to provide their services in China under a set of rules. On 29 July 2017, Apple complied with an order from the Chinese government to remove all VPN apps from its App Store that were not pre-approved by the government. While some netizens have attempted to circumvent these policies by using a VPN, changing IP addresses, using mirror websites, and various other methods, the Chinese government is swift in taking down these options and ensuring that it is difficult for those in the country to find and utilize them.

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.

When the autonomous region of Xinjiang rioted in July 2009, the government effectively shut down all internet service until May 2010 (312 days) in retaliation. This blockade showed the government’s power to exercise absolute control over all citizens.

An example of the Chinese government's control on the internet includes blocking all imagery of Winnie The Pooh due to netizens creating memes and comparing the cartoon to Xi Jinping. When this started in 2013, it was banned because of the caricature it painted of the government, supposedly undermining their authority.

Other examples of media which the Chinese government has chosen to ban on the internet include the American cartoon South Park, which was forbidden entirely after an episode criticized China's censorship policies.

China has benefited economically from banning global websites and social media platforms since domestic platforms have replaced their functions. For example, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia have alternate sites available in China, which boosts the economy as their foreign rivals have been blocked. Attempting to search for keywords that have been banned in China will provide misleading or no results, whereas other sites, like the Chinese version of Google, will state that local laws prevent them from showing more results.

Online payment
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, 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:[citation needed]

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.

The most commonly used third-party payment is Alipay, Tenpay, Huanxun, Epro, fast money, online banking, and as an independent online merchant or a website with payment services, the most common choice is nothing more than Alipay, Huanxun payment, Epro payment, fast money these four. 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.

In 2017 Chinas digital and online payment doubled in 2017 compared to 2016. Mobile payments made up for transactions that totaled about 17 trillion dollars in 2017. It's estimated in the 2017 period that there were about 890 million users that made the mobile payments. From 2019 to 2022 mobile merchant payments are expected to rise from 577 million to almost 700 million. Digital payments are becoming big in China that the People's Bank of China had to stop merchants from only excepting digital payment as it was seen as discrimination against cash. The growth of digital payments was so massive that just two decades ago China was a cash economy.

Online Mapping Services
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. 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. Tianditu is China's first online mapping service. Literally World Map, Tianditu was launched in late October 2010. The Chinese government has repeatedly claimed[citation needed] that this service is to offer comprehensive geographical data for Chinese users to learn more about the world.

In 2015 the China's State Council made rules that digital maps that are provided in China must be stored on servers within the borders of China. These went into effect on January 1st which also put certification standards for the providers of digital mapping to follow. China claimed that it was to boost the develop of the maps in the geographic information industry but it seemed like it was for different reasons. They did this to tighten the security and control on the maps and the information they provide. This information was considered very valuable to the officials of China and couldn't risk them getting into the hands of other political officials in other countries.