Upon receiving this assignment, I found myself aimlessly staring at my computer screen trying to figure out what country or culture I wanted to research. I wanted to choose a country that has a large enough digital footprint, but with a different take on it then America. I also wanted to research a non English speaking country. After staring at an online map of the world, I made a decision. For some reason or another, I ended up selecting China. Perhaps it was the fact that China has a population of over 1.3 billion people, and the fact that out of this 1.3 billion, 286 million of them are internet users over the age of thirteen. Compared to the United State’s population of a little over 307.2 million people, it would be safe to say that China has a pretty powerful grasp on the internet. Although this is a lot of people regularly surfing the web, I wanted to find out how many of these Chinese internet users were involved with social networking websites.
According to a New York Times article by Paul Boutin located at (http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/chinese-use-social-networks-more-than-americans-until-the-government-shuts-them-down/) 92 percent of broadband users in China are actively involved in a user-generated social networking site. That is about 263.12 million people regularly visiting a website where they can post blogs, upload photos or video, and actively socialize via the web. These websites include Chinese counterparts to MySpace and Facebook, and more popularly Chinese websites such as RenRen, 51, and Kaixin001.
So according to my research, people in China are in fact actively involved in social networking sites. Although these sites might not be the same as the one’s famous in the United States, the Chinese population is definitely as connected via the web as Americans, if not more so.
Yes is true that china is very actively involved in social networking sites. I have a friend who is chinese. He told me that every where he goes there is bound to be a internet cafe with computers. They really like to chat or get involved in media, sending pics or videos to their friends or family. I was thinking maybe is because also they don't have the luxury of going out so they stay home on their computer to have fun. It's just my opinion. But it is interesting to know that 92 percent are broadband users thats a lot of electricity. LOL ^_^
ReplyDeleteJOSE Briseno