When did the Internet originate? What was the name of its predecessor?

Internet is the Chinese translation of "Internet", which originated in the late 1950s. Its predecessor was ARPANET, which was developed under the sponsorship of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the US Department of Defense.

In the late 1950s, it was during the Cold War. At that time, the US military established a military network called "ARPAnet" by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the US Department of Defense, so as to keep communication with the rest of the computer network when it was attacked.

ARPANET was officially opened in 1969. At that time, only four computers were networked for scientists to carry out computer networking experiments. This is the predecessor of the Internet.

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In recent decades, with the development of social science, technology, culture and economy, especially the great development of computer network technology and communication technology, the trend of human society's transition from industrial society to information society has become more and more obvious, and people's information awareness and attention to the development and utilization of information resources have been continuously improved, which has effectively stimulated the development of ARPAnet and NSFnet.

Today's Internet is no longer a field for computer personnel and military departments to conduct scientific research, but a global information ocean for developing and utilizing information resources.

On the Internet, business categories include advertising companies, airlines, agricultural production companies, art, navigation equipment, bookstores, chemicals, communications, computers, consulting, entertainment, finance and trade, various shops, hotels and so on, covering all aspects of social life and forming a microcosm of an information society.