Page 97 - How China Is Winning the Tech Race

CHAPTER SIX

China has an estimated 30 million bloggers—more than one-third of the world’s total—
thanks to the free speech crusader Fang Xingdong, who coined the Chinese term for
blogging and set up that nation’s first blog-hosting service. But censorship, regulatory
crackdowns, poor management, and the lack of a clear business model are only the
beginning of troubles for this fascinating start-up.

Bokee.com—
Growing Pains

y first encounter with
Mblogging was in summer
2002 at a Stanford University con-
ference. Silicon Valley slowly was
getting its mojo back after the dot-
com era. A crowd was gathered at this
event, which had been organized by
the technology commentator Tony
Perkins and his new media company,
AlwaysOn, the successor to his tech
publication Red Herring. Bloggers
were seated in reserved center rows
with their laptops open, furiously typing instant feedback to the speakers’
remarks. Their comments were posted instantly on the AlwaysOn Web site
and simultaneously displayed on a giant screen on stage. Soon, the Web logs
captured more attention than the presentations. Even the speakers turned to
them for cues.
It was all very engaging. Blogging was not going to be a fad, I told friends
in New York City. They pooh-poohed the idea, pointing out that this “user-
generated” medium would never replace professional journalists. Today, The

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