Well connected: The growing reach of China’s internet sector

Wuzhen, a small town in Zhejiang (浙江) province, became the centre of global attention when it hosted the second World Internet Conference last month. The theme was “An interconnected world shared and governed by all: building a cyberspace community of shared destiny”. More than 2,000 participants joined the event. Among them were President Xi Jinping (習近平) and other heads of state, prominent local internet business leaders and leaders of major foreign internet companies such as Brian Chesky (Airbnb), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) and Reed Hastings (Netflix). The conference included discussions on a range of topics, from global internet governance, cyber security and the internet industry as the engine of economic growth, to social development, technological innovation and philosophy of the internet.

Xi gave the keynote speech, underlining the growing importance of the internet industry for China. He set out his vision of “cyber sovereignty”, urging the international community to support a “multilateral” approach to the governance of a shared future cyberspace, while also emphasising the need for all nations to join hands in fighting internet surveillance and cyberattacks.

READ MORE: Cybersecurity is a worthy goal, but the internet is also about free information flows

Alibaba’s Jack Ma pointed out that the internet has drastically changed almost every aspect of people’s lives in China and that the potential for internet entrepreneurs to incubate more innovative business models and breakthrough technologies is limitless.

Other Chinese internet leaders expressed their optimism about artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the Internet of Things. Baidu exhibited its prototype of a self-driving car. Its CEO, Robin Li, believes such cars will be commonplace in three to five years. Tencent aspires to build platforms that connect people with other people, products and services. CEO Pony Ma believes the internet can “help unlock the full potential of public services” such as health care and education by eliminating inefficiencies and lowering costs. Jia Yueting, CEO of LeTV, a fast-growing company which started as a content provider over the internet, talked about his vision of creating “lifestyle ecosystems” for consumers.

China’s internet industry saw strong growth in 2015. The number of users reached 670 million, with mobile users accounting for close to 90 per cent. Purchases from mobile phones account for around half of all Chinese e-commerce retail sales. Last year also marked a series of market consolidations, including mergers between mobility service providers Tencent’s Didi and Alibaba’s Kuaidi; classified advertising websites 58.com and Ganji.com; group-buying website Meituan and local review platform Dianping.com; as well as online travel agency platforms Ctrip and Qunar.

Leading Chinese internet companies took further steps to “go out” to the rest of the world. Alibaba hired former Goldman Sachs executive J. Michael Evans to help make it a major player in the US. Recently, it opened offices in Munich and Paris to expand its European operations.