The stage of industry formation

2004

The year of 2004 was a golden year for Chinese Internet industry. Thanks to the new operational mode with Chinese characteristics, a number of portal websites started to make profit, and the growing number of netizens and the thriving Internet industry constituted a positive cycle of development.

The e-commerce market saw more and more new entrants. The flooding of foreign capital and their competition with local capital drove the e-commerce market into flourish and intensified the competition among e-commerce brands. The listing of Chinese companies in the United States and foreign capital's investment in Chinese companies were all closely watched. The capital flow showed investors' interest and confidence in China's e-commerce market.

Shanda Games Ltd went listed on NASDAQ, winning the title of China's first concept stock of online games. Despite the bear market, its stock performance was good. In the same year, Shanghai Zhengtu Network was founded and started to develop its first MMORPG, Zhengtu. Shanda and Zhengtu later became two main participants and rivals in China's online game market and provided several influential games for users.

The year of 2000 saw the first IPO wave of Chinese Internet companies and the stocks of Chinese Internet companies took a nose dive, with few exceptions, in the bear market. Years later, the situation finally turned for better in 2004. Chinese Internet companies were eager to explore the American market and all of a sudden, Internet companies shined once again to investors. Tencent Holdings was listed in Hong Kong, the first mainland Internet company listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The increase of netizens and applications diversified the cyber culture, giving birth to cyber charity and online protection of rights, etc.

From the steady growth of netizens and the rapid expansion of Internet business, we could see that the second Internet wave in China already took off in 2004.