The development and integration stage

2010

The year of 2010 was the most eventful year for Chinese Internet industry: from the copyright disputes among video websites and the "sales war" among group-buying websites at the beginning of the year, the confrontation between the Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd (Qihoo 360) and the Kingsoft in the middle of the year, to the fierce "war" between the Qihoo 360 and the Tencent in the second half of the year, followed by the alliance of baike.com and cloudary.com.cn against Baidu, the competition between jd.com and dangdang.com in the e-commerce field, and the fight for Weibo users that continued from the previous year.

Meanwhile, online public opinion demonstrated its overwhelming social influence in the rescue work for victims of Wangjialing mining accident, the anti-fraud campaign launched by Fang Zhouzi, self-burning as a protest against forced demolition in Yihuang, and the Li Gang incident (in a hit-and-run incident, a drunk driver yelled at his pursuers, "Go ahead, sue me if you dare. My dad is Li Gang", referring to the deputy director of local public security bureau); all of these events mattered.

In April 2010, Google made a formal exit from the Chinese market, the request for google.com.cn would be automatically redirected to google.com.hk and the server for the former was relocated to Hong Kong. In May, the case of copyright infringement of Microsoft against an Internet bar in Dongguan was heard. This much-watched case ended with reconciliation in November 2010. The verdict demanded Dongguan Network Communication Co Ltd, the defendant, to purchase 700 authentic sets of Microsoft Windows operating system and compensate the plaintiff RMB100,000 in lump sum. It showed China's determination and efforts to protect the copyright, which were further proved in many other cases. The dispute between the Tencent and the Qihoo 360 made waves in the industry and pushed administrative departments to roll out related regulations and Internet associations to actively organize their members and Internet enterprises to develop industry-wide norms, so that government administration and regulation could be conducted side by side with self discipline of the industry, and government departments and industry organizations would pay more attention to protecting netizens' rights and interests. Meanwhile, more and more administrative regulations on the Internet were rolled out, contributing to the legislation for it. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the work plan for verifying the authenticity of online registration information; the Ministry of Culture issued the notice on improving and strengthening content management for online games and that on cracking down on illegal music websites; the State Administration for Industry & Commerce started to implement the interim measures on the administration of cyber transaction services; the Tort Law of the People's Republic of China was put into effect; the State Council Information Office released the white paper on the Internet in China, proposed the basic policy of active utilization, scientific development, management by law and safety guaranteed, and strived to improve regulations, regulate administrative supervision and create a healthy, harmonious interconnection environment via the administrative system incorporating self discipline, technical support, public supervision and mass education. The Internet industry was included into the strategic emerging industries in the 12th Five-Year Plan and would receive more support for its development. The 12th Five-Year Plan specified to accelerate the development of industries related to e-commerce and e-governance and comprehensively improve the informatization level. The new-generation mobile communication, next-generation smart Internet terminals, Internet of Things and new-generation information technology industries were listed as strategic emerging industries.

The war between companies and national policies all indicated that from 2010, the Chinese Internet industry would embark on the track of steady, sound and creative operation.