India Vs China: The Digital Media Market

From Herald Tribune: A censored market that delivers

"... in China, ... total online revenue hit $1.1 billion. India, an English-speaking democracy that allows freer flow of information, had online revenue of just $93 million.

"It does seem ironic that India, with its democratic government and free press, is so far behind China in developing its Internet market," says David Wolf, managing director of Wolf Group Asia, a Beijing-based regional consulting firm. "The simple reason is that China has the infrastructure and India doesn't."

"The number of Web users in China has expanded sevenfold in eight years to 94 million. India, whose population of 1.1 billion is close to China's, has 24 million Internet users. Yahoo employs 600 people in China, 10 times as many as in India."

"The Chinese government has paved the way for Internet growth by investing $138 billion in telecommunications networks in the past five years, even as it bans online content on topics from democracy to the Falun Gong spiritual movement."

"China has a critical mass that is driving Internet interest," says Duane Kuang, Hong Kong-based director of strategic investments for Intel Capital China, an Intel venture-capital unit. "The Internet companies we're seeing today have revenue and profits, and they're actually delivering services that people need."