Online news 'booming in China'

With the world’s largest network of more than 600 million netizens, China’s online news sector has reached new heights marked by the advent of around 200 licensed news sites and over 10,000 sites that reproduce a wide variety of online news, features and analyses.

Shi Ding, deputy editor of GlobalTimes.cn or Huanqiu.com in Beijing, said online news is booming in China as new media continue to expand at a fast pace while traditional media such as newspapers and 

television have seen a significant negative growth in recent years.

“We started in 2007 to focus on international news with global consequences. At present, we’re one of the top-three news websites available in Chinese and English languages with licences to produce original news reports, which are used by other domestic and international websites.”

“Our audiences for the English version of news on GlobalTime.cn are mainly young and middle-aged business people, of which 85 per cent are male. On average, they spend 16-17 minutes per day on our website using PC or mobile Internet devices.”

“So far, there have been over 10 million downloads of the app on mobile devices. Overall, we have about 8 million unique visitors on average daily.

“The Chinese language version has about 60 million page views while the English version has about 500,000 page views daily. On any given day, we would have about 1,000 pieces of news and related information, including those translated from foreign-language sources,” Shi said.

 “The most popular content is political, military and entertainment news fielded by domestic and overseas correspondents in over 100 countries. Even though we’re a state-owned media, there is no pre-censorship and we have freedom to cover news. However, there could be some complaints from the government [on sensitive topics].”

“In terms of revenue, we’ve tried to follow market rules with a projection to break even this year on an estimated revenue of 100 million RMB [Bt548.7 million) compared to 70 million in 2014 – mostly from copyright, mobile ads, music and games.”

 The Huanqiu group has a combined staff of more than 700 reporters in China and another 450 reporters overseas for both its websites and newspapers, including four reporters in Thailand. According to Shi Ding, the print circulation of both Chinese and English editions has dropped to an average of 2 million copies per day, but audiences for online and mobile news are on the rise.

Zhuang Ya Jie, deputy editor-in-chief of Fjsen.com, a major news portal in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, shared the same opinion, adding that more and more readers had shifted to mobile devices from PCs with fast-growing social media usage.

“We set up Fjsen.com in 

2001 aimed at overseas Chinese readers [whose number is estimated to total 38 million in Southeast Asia, the US, Australia and elsewhere]. At present, we have about 2 million page views per day with entertainment, education, anti-graft topics among the most popular.” 

Su Zhi Feng, deputy director of Web News Department at QZWB.com, another news portal in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, said online and mobile news have attracted a growing number of young audiences in civil service and businesses who prefer real-time information.

“We also serve as a forum for them to voice complaints on common issues such as the shortage of public facilities like sports arenas or transport infrastructure.” 

“On average, we have about one million page views per day with political, social and economic topics being the most popular. For the print edition of our paper, the circulation is around 200,000 copies.”

“Fujian is the starting point of the ancient Maritime Silk Road so we have launched a special section on our site focusing on the revival of this crucial trading route that could link China by sea with the rest of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.”

“At present, we have about 200,000 page views on this Maritime Silk Road section, of which 10-20 per cent of the viewers are overseas Chinese on our websites, apps and social media, including WeChat and Weibo [the Chinese version of Line and Facebook, respectively] – in addition to print and outdoor media,” said Feng.

On the Maritime Silk Road, Dr Chu Yanli, senior counsellor of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Fujian Provincial People’s Government, said the Chinese government had unveiled the vision and actions on jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in March this year.

The so-called Belt and Road initiative will be financially supported by the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Silk Road Fund.

The Belt is designed as a land-based transport infrastructure linkage between China’s northwestern region with Central Asia and Eastern Europe, while the Road is designed as a maritime trading route along China’s southern coast to Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa.

So far, more than 50 countries have expressed interest in joining the AIIB.

“In ancient times, Quanzhou Port in Fujian province was comparable to Alexandria in today’s Egypt. Tea, porcelain, and silk were among the goods traded along the sea route from China to Southeast Asia to India, Europe and Africa.”

“The initiative to revive this ancient trading route is aimed at promoting peace and development based on mutual interests and inclusiveness [of all the countries concerned]. About two months ago, we also launched the China-Asean Ocean Cooperation Centre as well as the China-Asean Marine Products Exchange to promote this initiative,” she said.