China Becomes Biggest Net Nation: So what?

China surpassed US to become the biggest net nation sometime last year, and the internet users are on the rise still. Despite that, China still has one of the lowest internet penetration rate and the 3G services only start rolling out sometimes this year. On top of that, its internet-related revenue remains a fraction of the US.

There is no doubt massive potential in terms of the future volume growth in China internet use. But to those hardworking LBS students that curiously taking the first-ever-experimental Internet Marketing class: so what? Really it doesn't matter which country is the biggest net nation as everyone will be hooked to the same web community anyway once you are connected.

Nonetheless, I think the case of China would provide interesting study on net culture especially from the perspective of people in emerging / developing world. Many studies we have today focus on American experience. While it is insightful, it may be less relevant in application to users outside developed world given massive difference in credit card usage, infrastructure in-place, trust and confidence etc. Therefore Chinese experience may give a good benchmark to further examine how net users behave differently in those context.