The development and integration stage

2008

After the boom in the past two years, the Internet industry in China was in a period of "Hibernation" in 2008 due to the financial crisis in the wake of the Olympics, e-commerce giants groaned that the industry had entered "a bitter winter"; online streaming websites encountered the difficulty of fund-raising, and search engines operators were caught up with the crisis of confidence. Although the entire industry was seriously hit, some websites maintained a good momentum of growth. For example, web portals fared relatively well; online games websites saw stable growth and shopping sites seemed thriving.

In 2008, the Chinese Internet industry began to be the global focus when the number of its net users rose to 253 million in June and nearly 300 million by the end of that year, 270 million of whom had access to broadband internet. In addition, .CN, the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the People's Republic of China, became the most popular one by July 2008. All these contributed to a rapidly rising status of China on the global Internet scene.

Online media increased their influence in 2008. They were devoted to presenting a full picture of domestic stories, especially emergencies, as a rebuttal of distorted reports of some western media. They endeavored to give the public truth. Following the devastating earthquake that hit Wenchuan on May 12, the Internet played an important role in delivering news reports, locating lost relatives, and appealing for donations. The wide application of videos also helped spread the Olympic news far and wide. Thanks to its performance before, in and after big events in China, the Internet won widespread recognition, and online media gradually became integrated into the mainstream of Chinese media .

Their growing importance led to more interest from the government and society as a whole. By giving a stronger voice to the citizens and acting as a watchdog of social trends, online media gained serious attention from the central leadership.

With the growing impact came problems, some of which needed urgent resolutions. The "S Photo Scandal" in the early 2008 caused quite a stir and set off intense discussions about privacy protection and online pornography. Then at the end of that year, China Central Television (CCTV), the largest media outlet in China, revealed misconduct of two Chinese search engine operators in their business operation, leading to an erosion of trust in these companies. To ensure a sound development of the Internet industry, the authorities at the national and local levels imposed stricter regulations and many enterprises called for self discipline. For example, eight ministries collaboratively issued “Regulations on enhancing supervision of Internet mapping and geographic information services websites; a hotline 12321 was opened to handle online misinformation; and Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce issued "Regulations on enhancing supervision of E-commerce market order". The entire country engaged in concrete efforts to build a positive environment for the development of the Internet.