Services on the Internet in China

With the expansion of the Internet globally and the rapid development of the Internet in China, the number of ISPs in China has been increasing and the services they provide have been enriched. However, in order to realize the prosperity of China's Internet services, not only do we need more and more ISPs to provide rich services, but we also need ISPs ISPs to continuously explore the service market, adopt a flexible operation mode, find their own ways to make profits, and continuously improve their own independent innovation ability to enhance their core competitiveness. In this paper, we study the operation mode of ISPs in China, and analyze the different needs of ISP operation mode for different types of business.

Global Internet Development

The global Internet has been expanding rapidly since its commercialization in the 1990s, and has become an important information infrastructure to promote economic development and social progress in today's world. After just over a decade of development, as of January 2007, the global Internet has covered 233 countries and regions in five continents, with Internet users reaching 1.093 billion, user penetration rate of 16.6%, and broadband access has become the main way of accessing the Internet. At the same time, the Internet has rapidly penetrated into all fields of economic and social activities, promoting the global informatization process. The global Internet content and service market is developing actively, and many ISPs are involved in the international Internet service industry chain. As a result, the development of Internet service industry has been active and a number of ISPs have been formed.

Although China's Internet development started later than the international Internet development, it has also been developing rapidly since entering the new century. According to the latest Internet development survey report released by CNNIC, as of December 2006, the number of Internet users in China reached 137 million, compared with the number of 620,000 Internet users in the first survey in October 1997, the number of Internet users has been 221 times. The number of broadband Internet users reached 90.7 million, ranking second in the world, and the number of mobile Internet users was 17 million. The number of websites in China is 843,000 and the number of web pages in the country is 4.47 billion.

1. Major Services Provided by Internet ISPs and Their Business Revenue With the development of broadband and the deepening of globalization, China's Internet business applications are basically in line with the development of international mainstream business applications, and China's ISPs are standing at the same starting point in terms of their business provision capacity with those of advanced countries in the world. International mainstream Internet services are all applied in China. Table 1 lists the major Internet applications provided by Chinese ISPs/ICPs.

However, the main Internet applications offered by China's local ISPs have Chinese characteristics. For example, the development of online game business and instant messaging business in China is significantly better than the global average.

Chinese ISPs' overall industry revenue in 2005 was around RMB 30 billion. The overall industry revenue has been growing rapidly, with a growth rate of about 40% from 2004 to 2005. Table 2 shows the revenues of typical ISPs in China. The growth rate of ISPs' business revenues varies greatly, with an average growth rate of more than 30%.

The Internet's original way of providing services for free used to drive the development of the Internet as a feature and advantage of the Internet. However, if everything is provided free of charge, the Internet's ability to provide business will be difficult to rapidly enhance the Internet in a variety of specialized services, such as the financial industry, publishing industry, etc., the application and development of the Internet will be limited, so the global ISPs in the process of their own development is also actively exploring the business model of the business model of business and profitability of the provision of business models.　The development of ISPs varies greatly, and there are three basic business models for ISPs operating in China:

●The first is a large and comprehensive business model, in which ISPs provide a wide range of Internet services.

●The second is a model that focuses on the main business.

●The third is a comprehensive business model. For example, some operate a variety of Internet businesses, such as online games and providing online advertising services, along with their main news and information services, and profit from these non-main businesses. Most Chinese ISPs have adopted the integrated business model of information services, focusing on their core business while at the same time providing other Internet information services. Through this business model, ISPs are able to expand their business operations, expand their sources of profitability, enrich their operating model and enhance their core competitiveness.

The business model adopted by Chinese ISPs is related to the competitive landscape of China's Internet application market. As the competition in each Internet business field is very fierce, the competition pattern may change at any time, thus causing most Chinese ISPs to focus on comprehensively consolidating and enhancing their core business capabilities and raising the threshold of entry for business services, ISPs ensure their monopoly, dominance or advantageous position through this development mode, creating opportunities for their own development.

In addition, most Chinese ISPs cooperate with domestic telecom operators. China Telecom launched the Internet Star cooperation platform, which has become a good soil for many ISPs to seek cooperation with China Telecom **** win, ISPs in China Telecom's network platform to provide Internet business services, not only to promote the development of the broadband industry chain, but also to protect their own users and business development, and promote their own good operation. The mobile dream network platform constructed by China Mobile is a good platform for many ISPs providing mobile Internet services to cooperate with China Mobile. Generally speaking, traditional telecom operators will share business revenue with ISPs to *** enjoy the benefits. This cooperation model has brought about the development and extension of the communication industry chain, and the distribution of value has gradually moved towards a reasonable balance. Although this model is relatively successful both at home and abroad, traditional telecom operators still occupy a major controlling position in the whole process of business activities. China's telecom operators are now adjusting this sharing model, and the emergence of the new "50 50" model signals the beginning of a new round of operation model adjustment for China's ISPs. At present, although content has gradually become an important feature of China's Internet business market, but ISPs have obvious advantages in content has not fundamentally changed the dominant force in the industry chain, network resources and user resources are still important factors in determining who is the protagonist in the Internet business industry chain.

Second, the analysis of typical ICP operation mode, according to the main business division, China's ISPs are mainly divided into the following categories.

1. Search Engine ICP By the end of 2005, 89.1% of Internet users had used search engine business. China's search engine market Domestic ISPs, such as Baidu, have surpassed overseas ISPs led by Google to become the major market players. The search services offered are also getting richer and richer, including map search, forum search, blog search and more and more segmented services.

(1) Business model The lack of profit model of domestic and foreign search engine ISPs has become a major confusion for future development, and more and more search engine ISPs are looking for a way out from other directions, relying on the provision of online advertising services, e-commerce and other ways to make profits.

(2) Typical case - Baidu Inc.　Baidu, the leading search engine provider in China, has made online advertising a major source of revenue in driving its operations. Baidu has launched a series of initiatives aimed at increasing user stickiness and expanding the range of services offered by its main business, including bundling the Baidu search toolbar with HP business computers, expanding its search business to Web 2.0, and offering blog search, etc. In its third quarter 2006 financial results, Baidu reported total revenues of US$30.3 million and operating profit of US$9.6 million, with an operating profit margin of 32%. The scale of advertising revenue is the highest in history, amounting to 30.1 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 18% to 28% year-on-year.

2. Instant Messaging ICP Instant messaging ISPs mainly provide Internet-based and mobile Internet-based instant messaging services. Since instant messaging ISPs control their own user resources, they can play a leading role in the instant messaging business value chain. This is very rare in the business model of cooperation with operators.

Business Model There are more and more ISPs involved in providing mobile instant messaging services. Instant messaging business consists of two kinds, mobile instant messaging and Internet instant messaging, there are big differences in their operating models. Internet instant messaging business appeared earlier, as it follows the free model of the Internet caused by the booming development, with the business in the Internet users penetration rate and user loyalty, instant messaging service providers began to charge. However, the main source of revenue for Internet instant messaging ISPs comes from advertising revenue of instant messaging clients. Unlike this, mobile instant messaging services appeared relatively late, generally using service access methods such as SMS and WAP, and some operators use built-in instant messaging clients to provide services. Most mobile instant messaging services are paid services, mobile instant messaging ISPs are more dependent on mobile operators, and many mobile operators themselves are ISPs for mobile instant messaging services. mobile instant messaging services use monthly billing (such as SMS) or per-use billing (such as WAP).

3. Mobile Internet Business ICP Mobile Internet business ISPs mainly provide mobile Internet services, including: WAP Internet access services, mobile instant messaging services, information download services and so on.

Operating Mode ISPs providing mobile Internet services mainly adopt the business development mode of cooperation with mobile telecom operators. In the form of revenue sharing and benefit ***sharing, ISPs provide Internet services together. For example, some ISPs cooperate with China Mobile to process their own rich content to realize China Mobile's requirements and gain business revenue. In this model, ISPs are more affected by changes in operator policies.

Portal ICP news and information services

Business model Portal ISPs are mainly engaged in providing various kinds of information to the public, and have a stable user base. The revenue sources of portal ISPs are relatively wide, including online advertising, mobile business, online games and other businesses.

2. China's ICP's key business has Chinese characteristics After entering the late stage of narrowband Internet development and the stage of broadband Internet development, China's ISPs are basically on a par with those in advanced countries in the world in terms of service provision capability. International mainstream Internet services can be provided by Chinese ISPs. At the same time, the main Internet applications operated by local ISPs also have Chinese characteristics, and ISPs operating mobile value-added services and online games are very prominent in terms of business revenue. Businesses that are well-developed in many countries may not have the same business expectations in China, while businesses like online games and instant messaging have become Internet businesses that are developing very well in China.

3. Content as King Becomes an Important Rule for ICP Development As bandwidth continues to increase, network capacity is no longer a bottleneck limiting the development of Internet services; instead, content has become an important factor in the development of ISPs, and ISPs as well as their users continue to have an increasing demand for high-quality content. At present, the most used Internet services in China are, in order, e-mail, news, search engine, web browsing, online music, instant messaging, BBS, online movies, etc. More than 50% of these first eight items are content-based Internet business services.

4. China's ICP has surpassed international ICP companies in certain application areas to dominate China's Internet application market.

The Role of the Internet The Internet is a huge worldwide computer network composed of various types and sizes of independently operated and managed computer networks - a global computer network, which is called Internet in English. the computer networks that make up the Internet include small-scale local area networks (LANs), city-scale LANs, and city-based LANs. （The computer networks that make up the Internet include small-scale local area networks (LANs), city-scale area networks (MANs), and large-scale wide area networks (WANs). These networks connect the networks of universities, companies, research institutes, and organizations such as the military and government in different countries over ordinary telephone lines, high speed dedicated lines, satellites, microwave and fiber optic cables. However, it is not appropriate to describe the Internet only in terms of computer networks or networks of computer networks. The reason for this is that a computer network is merely a medium for transmitting information, whereas the essence of the Internet is its ability to provide you with valuable information and satisfactory services. For example, when we go to a store to buy something, our main concern is whether the goods in the store are genuine and whether the service in the store is kind and considerate, while whether the store itself is gorgeous and rich is not what we really care about as customers. It can be said that the Internet is a huge information and service resource on a world scale. It not only provides people with a variety of simple and fast means of communication and information retrieval, but more importantly, it provides people with huge information resources and service resources. Through the use of the Internet, people all over the world can not only exchange information and ideas, but also obtain knowledge, experience and information in various aspects. The Internet is also a public-oriented social organization. Tens of thousands of people around the world can use the Internet for information exchange and resource ****sharing. And there are thousands of people who voluntarily spend their time and energy ant-like hard work, constructed the whole of mankind *** with the Internet, and allow others to *** enjoy the fruits of their labor. The Internet reflects the selflessness that mankind ****rewards, and the Internet allows people to learn how to better live in peace ****. The Internet is the first worldwide library and the first global forum ever created by human society. Anyone, from anywhere in the world, at any time, he or she can participate, and the Internet never closes. And, no matter who you are, you will always be welcome. You will not be excluded because of a different skin color, a different dress, or a different religion. In today's world, the only circle of life that has no borders, no discrimination, and no politics belongs to the Internet. Through the dissemination of information on the Internet, anyone in the world, regardless of nationality, race, sex, age, wealth or poverty, transmits experience and knowledge to each other and expresses opinions and views. The Internet is a great milestone in the development of human history, and it is quietly playing a greater and greater role in the civilization of human society. Perhaps like Watt's invention of the steam engine led to an industrial revolution (English expression: Directindustry, Industrial Revolution), the Internet will greatly promote the progress and development of human society.