Sep. 10, 2008

According to the 22nd report on China's Internet development released by the China Internet Network Information Center, the number of Chinese netizens have reached 253 million, making China number one around the world.

In addition, the number of broadband users in China is over 200 million for the first time, reaching 214 million and .CN domain names, whose number surpasses that of Germany's .DE with 12.188 million, has become the most widely used national top-level domain name.

The rapid increase in .CN domain names is, in part, the result of cheap prices for those domain names — sometimes hovering around CNY10. This has resulted in many overseas hackers and phishing gangs to purchase large quantities of these cheap domain names so they can launch viral attacks around the world. Because of the dependence on .CN domain names by these criminals, many email administrators around the world are slowly blocking access to .CN-originated emails.

In contrast with the rapidly development of China's Internet sector, the report also shows the crisis of confidence in the Internet. It says that although Chinese netizens' psychological dependence on the Internet is intensified, their confidence in the content and the security of the Internet is inadequate. Only 15.7% of the surveyed netizens believe in the information they read on blogs and BBS, which are two major content sources for the Chinese Internet; and only one-quarter of them say that the security of the Internet is reliable.