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News Stream looks at China & the internet

CNN's News Stream marks its 100th episode by investigating the impact of the internet on Chinese society.

This week CNN’s technology-powered news program News Stream marks its 100th episode.

Anchored from CNN Hong Kong by Kristie Lu Stout (pictured) it has turned its attention all week to investigating the impact of the internet on Chinese society.

In a week of special coverage it looks at China’s internet usage. China has more Internet users than the entire population of the United States: A staggering 450 million people. But who are they, what interests them most and what sites do they visit?

Host Kristie Lu Stout looks beyond the numbers to find out how this massive group are spending their time online.

Kristie also looks at Sina Weibo, China’s version of twitter. The microblogging service is fast approaching 100 million users despite only launching in 2009. Kristie explains the differences between the two services and looks at how Sina Weibo has become one of the leaders in social media.

The special coverage continues as Beijing-based correspondent Eunice Yoon features two of China’s most popular websites – Baidu and Taobao. She follows a 29-year-old engineer who works at Baidu to find out how the search engine has transformed itself into one of the biggest names on the Internet. She also looks at the success story behind Taobao, China’s biggest online retailer, which sells an average 48,000 items per minute and has more than 370 million users.

While China has the world’s most active Internet users, online censorship is among the most stringent anywhere. News Stream shows how the ‘Great Firewall’ impacts online life and what people do to get around it.

And there’s more on News Stream’s website, including an interview with noted blogger and activist Isaac Mao.

This special series continues at 11pm AEDT tonight and tomorrow.

3 Responses

  1. David – was that from a CNN press release?

    This sentence: At a staggering 450 million users it is more China has more Internet users than the entire population of the United States – doesnt make any sense.

    Doesnt anyone read these things before they release them?

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