¡¡ "Now, they give more attention to providing value-added services to the netizens, such as short messages (SMS), Global Positioning System (GPS), e-games and searching engines," Huang says. "It signals a shift from a disorderly proliferation to a more sound and practical development."

    Despite some "economic bubbles" at its initial stage, the Internet has promised good returns now. In 2004, Internet-related application services in China generated an earning of 11.3 billionyuan (8.11 yuan to 1 US dollar), of which 35 percent went to the blooming Internet-game industry.

    Shanda, the largest Internet-game provider in China, earned 154 million US dollars out of online-game business in 2004, when adozen Internet companies were listed in the US stock market, signaling the second round of getting listed in the overseas stockmarkets since 2000.Alibaba, the largest online commerce company in China, received 82million US dollars worth of capital in February this year.

    Prospects of China's Internet market have drawn foreign companies as well.

    MSN, a subsidiary of Microsoft, took the lead by setting up a joint venture in Shanghai this year. Such big names as Google, e-Bay, Amazon and Yahoo! are also deploying their expansion programs in China.

    "China's Internet industry is embracing a spring," says IT analyst Wang Zhong.

¡¡¡¡More choices

    Internet has enriched the Chinese netizens' life with more choices. For Li Jianlu, a Beijing-based netizen, it saves him the time for shopping. "I love to surf on Dangdang.com to buy books," he says. "It's speedy, and it offers good bargain prices."

    In November 2004, more than 72,000 college graduates took partin an online recruiting program in Beijing. In contrast, 31 recruitment fairs organized by the city's education commission throughout the year attracted no more than 40,000 students.

    And the Internet is playing an increasingly important role in pushing forward social progress in China, with "profound influenceon the life of many Chinese in a comprehensive way," observes Hu Qiheng, president of the ISC, on the 10th anniversary of China's full access to the Internet.

    On July 25, a live online broadcast in East China's Zhejiang Province attracted the attention of 100,000-plus netizens, which allowed them for the first time to watch online a session of the standing committee of the provincial people's congress, the local legislature, which is traditionally met behind closed doors.