Rediscovering the Awakening Dragon, Part I: From 'Made in China' to 'Created in China'

At the Forefront

China's cultural industry, like many other countries', encompass a wide rage of domains, film, publishing, design, performing arts, and the list goes on...Yet, the one at the front line of China's on-going nationwide cultural innovation is the online media industry, one of the most dynamic sectors in China's cultural industry.

The current wave of innovation in China's online media industry is "going public".

While those most sought-after commercial news portals such as Sina.com and 163.com already have Nasdaq listings, they are not in real sense online news media.

Since unlike those in the West, commercially run websites in China do not have the qualification to cover and release news. Only online media with a government background, to some extent, such as People's Daily Online, China Daily Website and CRIENGLISH.com have the privilege to do so, and hence are in a position to be labeled as "Chinese news site" or "Chinese online publication".

Further, those commercial news portals merely target at China's domestic netizens, pouring the bulk of their investments into the Chinese-language information products and services. They are the Chinese mainstream news sites, like the aforementioned online publications, that have the privilege to cover the English-language news and deliver quality service to western netizens.

By this token, in the eyes of Western readers, the news sites, at the current stage, to say the least, constitute the bulk of China's online media industry.

China's state-run online media sector has experienced a major transformation.

To date, over 80 percent of major central and local news sites have converted from the non-profit, government-sponsored public institutions to the more market-oriented, commercially run companies, in order to improve their operational efficiency and competitiveness; and the remaining ones will finish up their restructurings by the end of 2012.

To take a step forward, the Chinese central government encourages a quarter of the whole nation's major online news sites, that is 10 among China's 40-plus mainstream online publications, to go public.

At the forefront of the lineup is People's Daily Online. The online extension of China's flagship newspaper People's Daily managed to become an A-share listed company in April 2012, becoming the first ever government-backed mainstream news site to be listed on the capital market in China.♦

Read on: Part II: A Journey to Renaissance

Li Zhenyu authors the "Golden Decade" column for People's Daily Online.

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