January 17
CNNIC issued "the 17th Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China" in Beijing. The report shows that till Dec. 31st, 2005, China has had about 45,900,000 computers on the Internet, about 111,000,000 Internet users, 1,096,924 registered CN domain names, and about 694,200 websites. The international network bandwidth of China is 136,106 Mbps by then.
February 21
2006, Ministry of Information Industry (MII) started a series of activities of "Sunshine Green Network Campaign", including: Clean Electronic Waste, Enjoy Clean Network Space; Regulate Illegal and Malfeasances Information, Promote Green Mobile-Phone Culture; Fight Illegal Online Service, Introduce Green Online Behaviors.
March 19
The National Informatization Leading Group issued the General Frame of National Electronic Government Information, set the requirements and targets for establishing the general frame of national electronic government information, described the form of the general frame of national electronic government information, and pointed out the value-orientation and development direction of national electronic government information for the next stage.
March 30
The Management Methods for Internet Email Service issued by MII began to take into effect.
2006
June MII decided to initiate the targeted movement of regulating and standardizing the rates and charging behavior of mobile information service nationwide.
July 1
The Regulations on the Protection of the Right of Communication through Information Network approved in the 135th standing conference of the State Council began to take into effect.
July 18
The award of 16th "Chinese Journalism Prize" held by All-China Journalists' Association was revealed. Network news articles were in the prize competition for the first time. Thirteen network news articles were awarded prizes.
Sep 14
MII issued "the Notice on Regulating Rates and Charging Behavior of Mobile Information Service".
October 13
The International Engineering Task Force (IETF) formally issued the Registration and Administration Recommendation for Chinese Domain Names as RFC4713. The standard was mainly constituted by CNNIC.
October 26
Internet Society of China set up the "Anti-Malicious Software Collaborative Working Group".
November 16
The "Golden Shied Project", a project for establishing national police affairs information management system, formally obtained the national completion acceptance in Beijing.
December
The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors was amended, with contents of the network included.
January 26
Google officially launched the special domain name "Google.cn" for its China Mainland version.
January 8
Focus Media annexed Target Media, its biggest competitor, at the price of USD94.00 million and shares worth USD231 million.
In early January
The pilot work of WCDMA and TD-SCDMA networks was carried out in Guangdong.
February
Qihoo 360 acquired Shanghai Yizhitang Information Service Co., Ltd. Qihoo 360 launched the "Spider Plan", outputting its search technology to BBS for free. In April, it launched the MP3 search. In July, it officially launched 360 Total Security, formed the strategic partnership with Kaspersky, the world's top antivirus vendor, and officially launched the news search.
March
The first anniversary of Douban , its registered users exceeded 110,000.
March
Mop and DoNews officially launched "My Space". Mop launched 5q in April and the Chinese Software Community in June. Its new version UUme was launched online in July, focusing on share of short videos. In November, Mop's 5q and xiaonei were merged.
April 12
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google announced that the Chinese name of Google in Beijing. Google thereupon entered china officially.
June
PPC (pay per click) of Baidu adjusted its original rule of unified starting price, and the "smart starting price" system was officially launched.
June
The Head Office of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) officially issued to Alipay the first Trusteeship Report on Security Deposit for Customers' Transaction, which was the first audit report on funds trusteeship made by the Chinese banking industry for the third-party payment platform, and the first custodian audit acquired by the third-party payment platform from the banks.
June 1
Jiayuan became the partner of Microsoft's MSN dating channel.
June 21
Youku announced its public test, positioning it as a service platform for users to share videos. Gu Yongqiang served as CEO as well as president. On December 12, Youku completed its fund-raising of USD12 million.
June 8
Phoenix Satellite Television officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China Mobile, upon which the latter acquired 19.9% of the shares of Phoenix Satellite Television. On August 30, the Deposition Decoding Channel of ifeng 's Interactive Center was officially launched online. On October 18, Phoenix New Media, the revised ifeng , was formally launched online.
July
Dangdang obtained the third round of venture investment. The renowned venture capital institutions DCM, Walden International and Alto Global jointly invested USD 27 million in Dangdang . In July, Dangdang established a comprehensive strategic partnership with China Union Pay. In September, Dangdang launched the payment service through phones.
July
Mayfield and GSR Ventures, two famous venture investors from Silicon Valley, completed their investment in qunar .
August 8
Jiayuan became the partner of tom and the dating channel of vent.cn, and on September 1, the partner of the dating channel of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank. On October 2, Jiayuan obtained the special sponsor from Oslim Healthy Foods.
September 23
The "Core Network CNGI-CERNET2/6IX of the Project of China Next Generation Internet (CNGI)" constructed by the network center of China Education and Research Network (CERNET) and 25 colleges and universities such as Tsinghua University was officially approved by the state.
From Sep. to Nov.
The provincial communications administrations investigated and dealt with at least 245 illegal mobile value-added service providers. The profits of the listed mobile value-added service providers declined sharply in 2006.
October 23
Xiaonei was acquired by China InterActive. At the end of the year, The China InterActive-owned 5q was merged with xiaonei , marking the monopoly of the China InterActive Group over the Chinese Campus Internet market.
November
3G network was officially put in commercial use in Beijing and other cities.
December 18
6 operators including China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom, ChungHwa Telecom, Korea Telecom and Verizon of the United States announced in Beijing that they would jointly construct a direct cable system across the Pacific Ocean.
December 21
Youku was officially put into operation.
December 26
A 7.2 magnitude earthquake occurred in the south area of Taiwan, China, cutting off 11 undersea optical fiber cables including CUCN, APCN1, APCN2, among others. Internet in a large area of Mainland China to Taiwan, North America, Europe and Southeast Asia was paralyzed. Most overseas websites became inaccessible.
By the end of 2006
A virus named Worm.WhBoy.cw (Panda Burns Incense) broke out, inflecting and damaging millions of computers. According to the survey, more than 90% of the new viruses were obviously made for benefits in 2006. Virus producers turned from showing off their skills to pursuit of illegal interests.
At the beginning of 2006
A short video A Murder Evoked by a Steamed Bun modeled by The Promise and Law Online went viral in the Internet with its download rate exceeding Chen Kaige's movie The Promise. This incident led to a large discussion on "infringement" with lawyers as the main participants.
January 1
The portal website of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China (www.gov.cn) was officially launched. It was a comprehensive platform where the State Council and its departments as well as the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities issued information of governmental affairs and offered online services on the Internet.
February
The blog of the National People's Conference (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) sessions played an important influence. In its special reports, CCTV published news and interacted with the audience by extensive use of blog for the first time.
March 23
Southern Weekly published on its headline A Magistrate and Netizen Wearing No Veils, reporting Fu Yong, magistrate of Lingao County, Hainan who registered his real name on Tianya for communication with other netizens. The reports attracted attention of the media across the country.
March 2
Han Han quarreled with Bai Ye on the blog, causing a widespread concern in society. In this context, bokee launched a discussion on the Blog Convention. After the comments of experts and the blogs were integrated, China's first Blog Convention was formulated.
June 1
Xiang Webo published in his blog M&A of XCMG: A Beautiful Lie! and other two articles, disclosing M&A of XCMG by the Carlyle Group, causing great repercussions. The price of M&A was eventually changed from USD375 million for 85% shares to USD233 million for 45% shares, highlighting the influence of minority media. According to 2006 Survey Report on Chinese Blog released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), as of the end of August, 2006, the number of blog authors reached 17.485 million.
July 27
Internet Society of China launched "Starting from Me to Purify Space of Network Life", an a-hundred-day network clean-up activity.
August 30
Members of "2006 Beijing Network Media's Travel to Red Homeland" began the activity "Crossing Colorful Guizhou, Pursuing Footprint of Long March, and Carrying Forward Spirit of Long March".
September 21
The 5th China Internet Conference was held in Beijing International Convention Center, with the theme of "Innovation, the opportunity brought about by the Internet."
November 30
The 6th Chinese Network Media Forum opened in Kunming, Yunnan, with the theme of "The Development of Network Media and The Construction of Harmonious Networks."
