Most Internet users are probably aware the Internet giants are made in the USA. Well, it used to. China is however leaping USA in most front and that is attributed to the fact that China has an Internet population of 420 million, more than the number of people in the U.S. and Germany.
The Internet’s center of gravity is shifting toward China and below are the Internet Giants (or digital superpowers) from China and USA (and rest of the world) pitting with each other.
1. Online video provider
Youku.com is China’s biggest online-video provider, is the nation’s version of YouTube or Hulu. About 70 percent of the videos on Youku’s site are professionally produced, and the rest are user- generated. Whereas U.S. video sites are dominated by music videos and short clips, about 60 percent of Youku’s content is longer, such as movies, he said.
2. Largest Internet Companies
Tencent and Baidu Inc., China’s largest Internet companies, are larger than EBay Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. by market value. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Alibaba.com unit is also among the 10 biggest Internet companies globally by market capitalization.
3. Online Chat Software
China's QQ online-chat software offer additional features that appeal to youths, helping it beat services from Skype Technologies SA and Microsoft Corp. QQ controlled 77 percent of China’s instant-messaging market as of December, compared with 4.2 percent for Microsoft’s MSN, according to researcher Analysys International.
4. Biggest online shopping site
Taobao.com, China’s biggest online-shopping site, overtook San Jose, California-based EBay within three years of its founding in 2003 by waiving commissions from transactions between its users. The approach by Taobao appealed more to China’s cost-conscious Internet users.
5. Biggest online advertising sale
China trails the U.S. in revenue. Sales from online advertising reached 20.7 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) last year, according to data from Beijing-based iResearch Inc. By comparison, ZenithOptimedia estimates U.S. Internet advertisements in 2009 were valued at $54.2 billion.