February 25
Eight ministries and administrative offices jointly issued the Opinions on Intensifying Supervision over Internet Maps and Geographic Information Service Websites, requiring further regulations on the Internet maps and geographic information service websites. These eight ministries and administrative offices are: the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Information Industry, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Press and Publication, State Council Information Office, and Administration for the Protection of State Secrets.
March 11
In accordance with institutional reform of the State Council passed at the 1st Session of the 11th National People's Congress, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was set up under the State Council. Responsibilities of the former Ministry of Information Industry and the former State Council Informatization Office have been transferred to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology which now becomes the administrative authority of the Internet industry in China.
April 28
Commissioned by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Internet Society of China set up the "12321 Information Center of Indecent and Unsolicited Electronic Messages", and the complaints and reports can be submitted via telephone calls, feedbacks on websites, e-mail messages, mobile phone texting and WAP.4. May 24 - The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance release a notice on deepening reform in the telecom system. According to the notice, China Telecom would buy out China Unicom's CDMA network, including assets and users; China Netcom would be merged with China Unicom; China Satcom's basic telecom services would be incorporated into China Telecom; China Railcom would be merged with China Mobile; and the number of domestic mobile operators would be reduced to three from six.
June 20
President Hu Jintao communicated with the Internet users on line through the ChinaForce BBS on people .cn. As a key channel for information exchange, the Internet has attracted more and more attention of the government.
July 2
Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce officially issued the Opinions on Strengthening Supervision and Administration over the Order of Electronic Commerce Market which provides that, from August 1, each profitable on-line shop must obtain a business license before business operation.
September 17
Premier Wen Jiabao made comments on the "reporting letter posted on a blog about concealing of deaths in the landslide accident in Loufan County, Shanxi Province on August 1", requiring relevant authorities to carry out careful inspection and verification of the major accident of burst of a dam at a refuse ore. The function of Internet as means of supervision by public opinions has caught further attention of the central government.
September 28
According to the official reply to each local taxation bureau by the State Administration of Taxation, the incomes obtained by individuals purchasing virtual currency from Internet players and reselling to others with premiums should be subject to individual income tax, and a 20% individual income tax under the category of "income from transfer of property" should be levied.
2008
The Regulation of the People's Republic of China on the Disclosure of Government Information took effect in 2008, marking the establishment of an open information system in China.
December 31
The State Council agrees to launch 3G licenses.
2008
Guangzhou Duowan Information Technology Company LTD. develops YY, a video - based social network application.
2008
Letv earns 3.4 million yuan from sales and distribution of copyright.
2008
Youku starts online video marketing in China. With innovative delivery of videos, the company increases brand outreach and competiveness, and becomes the most reliable online marketing agent.
2008
Zol .cn and its parent company CNET is bought over by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the world's largest broadcast group, and incorporated into CBS Interactive.
2008
Li Jing, a well-known hostess, producer and founder of Fleet Entertainment Co.Ltd, establishes Lefeng ,an online retail website specialized in selling cosmetics and fashion products in China.
January 1
The board game Killers of the Three Kingdoms was launched.
January 3
Lenovo announces to launch IdeaPad, laptops, and IdeaCentre desktops in a move to enter the global PC markets.
January 3
Sohu Blog 3.1 is released and the Sohu Blog Open Plaform opens.
January 11
The Tieba Volunteer Alliance is established.
January 16
The 2007 Chinese Game Industry Conference kicks off in Suzhou. An industrial report shows that by 2007, online game users in China reached 40.17 million, 23% up from 2006, and 22.36 million were paying users.
February
VANCL starts to run online ads and over time becomes a leader in online marketing.
February 27
The Baidu Security Center is launched. The software can block viruses, spyware and other malware, and pushes security updates.
February 29
NetEase and Nettop organize a house fair in Guangzhou as part of their strategic cooperation in online ads of real property and furnishing.
March
Beijing Kaixinren Information Technology Company Ltd. establishes kaixin001 , the first Chinese social network targeting white collars.
March 25
Baidu Hi, an instant messaging tool, becomes available for open beta test after a one-month internal test.
March 28
Baidu launches the Haier Channel for users of live streaming TV.
March 28
Giant Interactive Group launches The Giant, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. At the same night the peak concurrent users reach 237,686, a record number for Chinese online games in 2008.
March31
Duan Yongji withdraws from the Sina Board of Directors and Wang Yan becomes the acting president.
March3
Zhengtu, an online game developed by Giant Interactive Group, witnesses a record high peak concurrent users: 1,529,615.
March8
The online dating website Jiayuan and the Hubei TV organize a large-scale blind date party; March 9 - the two begin to air a TV program Jiayuan Dating; March 15 -Jiayuan begins to work with Sina North America to offer cross-border dating service.
April 15
Taobao Open PlatformV1.0 - sandbox is launched to build the industrial value chain.
April 10
Tmall, a new B2C site, is put into service.
April 11
Alibaba releases a strategically important product Winport. The e-commerce platform is designed for small-and-medium enterprises to help them grow and prosper online.
April 14
Giant Interactive announces the establishment of the Southwest R&D Center.
April 1
Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Qinhuangdao start to launch social and commercial TD-SCDMA services on an experimental basis.
April 21
The official version of Baidu Baike is published.
April 28
Happiness 3+3, a TV program coproduced by Jiayuan and The Jiangsu TV (Variety), gets aired.
April 28
Tudou completes the fourth round of funding, raising$57 million from Crescent Point Group, Venrock, GGV Capital, General Catalyst,IDG and CA-JAIC. By April 28, the company has raised $85 million.
April 3
Baidu and China Unicom sign an agreement of cooperation to launch web search services together.
May
Qihoo 360 launches its own web browser that features sandbox technology to prevent attacks of viruses and Trojans to computers through webpages.
May 10
Jiayuan and the Hubei Publicity Department organize the Third Youth Dating Festival, and Jiayuan becomes the exclusive title sponsor.
May 15
Alibaba, together with SoftBank establishes a joint venture in Japan to better run its business there.
From May
Social networking service, such as Kaixin and Xiaonei , become accepted widely, and is one of the most popular Internet application in 2008.
By June 30
China has become the largest online population with 253 million net users. And by July 22, .CN has become the world's most popular country code with 12.188 million websites registered under it.
June 10
Alibaba offers TrustPass service to help Chinese enterprises expand domestic trade.
June 11
Youku launches its He Plan to increase cooperation with other media outlets and diversify its brand cooperation strategy.
June 5
Baidu releases the Baidu Hi in the Baidu World Conference.
By the end of June
The monthly unique users of Tudou has broken the 100 million barrier.
July
Zol .cn is acclaimed as a "Chinese Flagship Brand" by the Columbia Journalism Review, and becomes the world's first IT media winning the award.
July 11
Yhd is launched and becomes the first "online supermarket" in China.
July 1
Giant Interactive buys '' in a move to increase its presence in online communities.
July 5
Jack Ma announces that Alibaba will invest another two billion yuan to Taobao in the fifth anniversary of the online shopping site.
July 9
Youku acquires the licenses to broadcast and stream video online from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Beijing Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
August
Alibaba launches Export to China, or ETC services, to help foreign small-and-medium enterprises to sell their products to China.
August
In the first week into the Olympic Games, Sohu saw record high numbers, including three million visits in five minutes and more than 100 million visits in one hour.
August
VANCL announces that it has completed the third round of funding, raising $30 million.
August
Funshion acquires the license to broadcast online from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
August 12
Baidu and Hexun start to build the Baidu Finance Channel.
August 13
NetEase wins the exclusive operation right of StarCraft II, Warcraft III and Battle Net.
August 15
Douban Square is launched.
August 20
VANCL wins investment from Qiming Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, IDG and Ce Yuan Ventures in its third round of funding.
August 4
Tieba.baidu finishes another makeover which focuses on interesting events and forums, and turns the webpage into green.
August 5
Google China and Top100.cn announce that Google music will be available on Google.cn and that all the free music had been officially authorized.
August 5
Letv completes private placement funding worth 52 million from Beijing Huijin Lifang Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group, and Nanhai Growth Selected Funds. The authorized videos of the website was one of the reasons for its wide recognition.
September
Tudou obtains the license to broadcast online from the State Administration of Radio Film and Television.
September 10
Baidu announces that its C2C payment platform Baifubao will be released together with the Baidu C2C platform.
September 17
Tudou launches Heidou, the first platform of high-definition videos ever built by an online video streaming website in China.
September 22
Douban replaces its Sit Management BBS with a new Support Center.
September 23-25
The Seventh China Internet Conference is held in Nanjing International Expo Center by the Internet Society of China and under the direction of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The topic of this conference is Integration for Development and Penetration for Value.
September 25
The first approved 10,000 users begin to enjoy Baidu C2C services at 8 pm, marking the arrival of the Baidu C2C Platform that has been developed and tested for about one year.
September 28
Baidu buys into UITV and in doing so, acquires 100 million yuan in cash and 8.3% of the latter's share.
September 4
As part of its "Big Taobao Strategy", Alibaba announces the mege of Taobao and Alimama to build the world's largest e-commerce system. By september 2008, monthly turnover of Taobao has surpassed the 10 billion yuan barrier.
September 7
Geoeye-1 is launched into space and will provide Google Earth with imagery with details the size of 50 cm.
October
Meitu is put into operation and soon becomes a leading online photo-service platform.
October 20
Tianya Bulletin starts publication online. Tianya.cn goes up to the 12thposition in the 2008 Chinese commercial website listing, from the 77th in 2007.
October 8
Lu Zhaoxi, CEO of Taobao , announces in Beijing that Alibaba will invest five billion yuan in Taobao in the next five years as part of the Big Taobao Strategy.
November
360Security Center becomes the first to intercept the Worm.SaodangBo.a.94208, and then issues patches to fix the MS08-067 loophole. The patches prove effective in preventing the massive spread of the worm.
November 11
Youku upgrades its He Plan, modernizing the Internet TV programs, distribution and marketing and revolutionizing the rules of the road in TV program production in China.
November 18
Kingsoft releases WPS2009, PowerWord2009, FastAIT2009, and AntiVirus2009, in its 20th anniversary celebrations.
December
The online shopping site Vipshop opens, focusing on big brands of clothing, cosmetics and accessories. Then it becomes the first site to offer insurance against fake goods, as part of its strategic cooperation with China United Insurance Holding Company.
December 11
Sina announces a stock repurchase worth $100 million.
December 12
Baidu announces that Thunder Networking Technologies, which develops the Xunlei download manager, joins the Baidu Alliance.
December 18
Baidu establishes a R&D center in Shanghai and announces the Aladdin Platform Plan.
December 1
Youku News Center starts operation, set a new model of video-based news delivery.
December 22
Sina announces that it buys digital outdoor advertising business for $1.3 billion. It is the largest merger in the Chinese Internet history.
December 30
The Hangzhou government announces the kick-off of the Taobao Town project. According to the schedule, the world's first Taobao Town, which needs an investment of 1.36 billion yuan and covers an area of 450 mu, will be put into service in five years.
January-February
The sex photo scandal breaks out as intimate photos of some Hong Kong actresses are published online. The scandal sets off intense discussions about how to create a clean Internet and protect online privacy.
March
The first online media-organized event in honor of people of high character Touching the Heart of China selects 100 candidates, under the auspices of The State Council Information Office.
March
The National People's Congress and the Chinese Political Consultative Conference (NPC&CPPCC) become more accessible to the public online. For example, the live streaming company PPLive dedicates certain channels to the meetings, through which net users can watch the live broadcast of the opening and closing ceremonies of the first session of the 11th National People's Congress. They can also follow and comment on the latest development of the meetings.
April
Qihoo 360 launched an online petition to ask CNN to apologize to China. More than 210,000 net users engaged in the event, and their petition was sent to the U.S. embassy.
April 20
Beijing-based network media professionals start seven-day patriotic activities in Anhui. They visit the former headquarter of the New Fourth Army, and in the Yunling Declaration they pledge to offer refined culture online.
May 12
Taobao launches an online donation platformfor the victims of the Wenchuan Earthquake, raising 20 million yuan.
May 22
Ten days after the earthquake, Tencent and the Chengdu government sign a memorandum of understanding on cooperation worth 550 million yuan.
By May 23
People .cn, Xinhua.net, Chinanews , and CCTV have published about 123,000 pieces of news of the earthquake which contain photos, texts, audios and videos. Sina , Sohu , 163 and QQ have published 133,000 pieces. The eight news websites garner 11.6 billion clicks and 10.63 million comments. Also the Internet plays an important role in disaster reports, location of missing family members, and donation-raising. The network media in China enters a new height of development.
Nov to Dec
CCTV exposes the misconduct of Baidu and Google, leading to a crisis of confidence to search engines. Paid listing becomes a focal point of social dialogues.
Dec 5
The Eighth Chinese Network Media Forum is held in Chongqing to discuss the Scientific Outlook on Development and ways to build an honest and clean Internet.
2008
"I am buying soy source." becomes a popular buzzword after its appearance in the Tianya Forum.
2008
China becomes the largest online population with the most broadband Internet users and a penetration rate of the Internet and fixed broadband wireless access higher than the global average.
