January 18
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) held a conference in Beijing to launch TD-LTE scale testing. China Mobile would construct TD-LTE scale testing networks in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Xiamen and Hangzhou, and TD-LTE demonstration network in Beijing.
February 16
China Telecom lunched the MONET program, planning to develop more than 100 million FTTH (Fiber To The Home) users in five years.
From March
Online platforms such as wenku.baidu and mp3.baidu were accused of infringements by writers and representatives from the publication industry, the music community, and the audio-visual associations. In December, tudou got a dispute with youku over copyright issues. On December 16, the Supreme People's Court promulgated the Opinions on Several Issues about Giving Full Play to the IPR Judicial Function to Advance Social and Cultural Prosperity and Promoting the Independent and Coordinated Development of the Economy. The Opinions clarified the validation rules for copyright infringements in online settings.
April 26
Concerning Tencent's unfair competition claims against Qihoo 360, Chaoyang District People's Court of Beijing reached a verdict in the first trial that the three companies including Qihoo 360 shall compensate Tencent RMB 400,000.
April 29
An MIIT official said that the MIIT would accelerate developing the standards for the Internet of Things (IoT) to gain a bigger say in the international community in this regard.
May 18
The People's Bank of China issued the first batch of 27 third-party payment licenses (Payment Business License).
June 27
The MIIT summarized the first-phase pilot work on nationwide tri-networks integration, and found that despite the achievements, pilot areas were still faced with many problems and barriers. The main reasons included the maladies of management systems, the development gaps between the radio and TV departments and the telecommunication departments, and their different the understanding of the pilot business.
July 1
The General Office of the State Council announced the first batch of 12 pilot cities for tri-networks interaction, including Beijing and Shanghai. This signified that the pilot work on tri-networks interaction had been launched officially.
July 5
China Mobile and the General Administration of Press and Publication signed the Memorandum of understanding on Strategic Cooperation Advancing the Development of the Digital Publication Industry, and at the same time launched a mobile reading campaign targeting young people. Leaders present at the signing ceremony included Liu Binjie, Director-General of the General Administration of Press and Publication, Wang Jianzhou, Chairman of China Mobile and Xi Guohua, Party Secretary of China Mobile.
August 31
The central bank announced the second batch of 13 enterprises granted the third-party payment licenses, including ChinaPay, Hangzhou Yintong Digital Information Technology Co., Ltd., Union Mobile Pay, and Chengdu Mobo Network Technology Co., Ltd.
September 8
With the help of Liaoning police, Shandong police caught a criminal surnamed Shang, who was involved in the online pyramid scheme of www.tpy100 . In the name of rebates, Shang lured members to pay deposits, and brought in revenue of more than RMB 1.2 million illegally.
September 15
China Mobile and the Ministry of Education signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Beijing. Through complementing each other's advantages and in a move to support education and achieve a win-win situation, the two sides would establish close strategic partnership and work together to accelerate the application of IT in education.
September 28
Zhang Dejiang, Vice Premier of the State Council, visited the China Mobile booth at the PT/EXPO CHINA 2011. He listened to introductions about the construction and operation of TD-SCDMA network, wireless cities and the development of TD-LTE industry, and lauded the breakthroughs China Mobile had made in the field of TD-LTE.
September 29
Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court ruled that, as to Tencent's accusation against Qihoo 360 of infringement relating the "360 privacy protector", Qihoo 360, Qizhi Software and Beijing Sanji Wuxian Network Technology Co., Ltd. shall make a public apology for their unfair competition and pay a compensation of RMB 4 million to Tencent.
November 1
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) launched an anti-monopoly investigation against China Telecom and China Union over broadband access issues. This was the first anti-monopoly investigation against network operators since the implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China.
December 9
At the conference call on the transportation for the Spring Festival, Sheng Guangzu, Minister of Railways, said that new ticket booking methods would be introduced for the upcoming Spring Festival, including online ticket booking service, telephone booking service and electronic payment service, signifying that China's railway services have entered the age of e-commerce.
December 16
The Beijing Municipal Regulations on the Administration of Microblogging Services was promulgated, stipulating that any organization or individual must register microblog accounts with their real names. Other cities followed suit, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Tianjin.
December 31
The third batch of third-party payment licenses were granted by the central bank to companies such as China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom, increasing the total number of such licenses already issued to 101.
2011
With the approval of the State Council, the Cyberspace Administration of China was established as China's internet information regulator. Its mission is to strengthen Internet construction, development and management, and improve the administration of online virtual society, and it shows that the government highly values the Internet.
By the end of December
CNNIC's 29th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China showed that by the end of December 2011, the number of China's netizens had exceed 500 million to 513 million. The number of IPv4 addresses totaled 330 million, and IPv6 address 9,398/32, a surge from 401/32 at the end of 2010. China had 7.75 million domain names in total, among which ".CN" domain names reached 3.53 million. There were 2.3 million websites in China, and the international internet bandwidth reached 1,389,529Mbps.
By the end of 2011
According to data from CNNIC, by the end of 2011, China had 356 million mobile phone internet users. According to data from the MIIT, by the end of 2011, there were 128 million 3G users in China, an increase of 81.37 million, and the number of 3G base stations reached 814,000. In addition, the three operators (China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile) had accelerated the construction of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN). By the end of 2011, more than three million of wireless access points (AP) had been deployed across China. The broad coverage and wide application of 3G and WiFi has pushed China's mobile internet into a stage of rapid development.
January 2
Kunming Beliw Technology Development Co., Ltd. unveiled the Beliw Internet of Things (IoT) terminal, the first of its kind in China.
January 3
Xijing substation in Huishan District of Wuxi, the first 220 KV intelligent substation of the State Grid, was put into operation. It has a sensor measurement and control network backed by the IoT technology, making it an unattended substation in a true sense. Using the IoT technology, it allows self-sensing, judgment and decision-making of transformation equipment, realizing automated control and meeting the expectation of the substation design and construction, which have reached advanced levels in China.
January 7
The open platform of kaixin released the "component access" feature, in a move to implement the "fully open" strategy.
January 11
Taobao Mall, a B2C platform under Alibaba Group, announced to change its name to Tmall.
January 12
Ctrip signed a cooperation agreement with xiaomishu , a well-known restaurant booking service provider based in Shanghai. With the strategic investment from Ctrip, the two sides will capitalize on each other's strength and work together to increase their market share in China's restaurant reservation market.
January 14
Alipay and China CITIC Bank jointly launched the dedicated online shopping credit card --- "CITIC-Taobao credit card". They also reached an agreement on instant payment cooperation to improve the online payment experience of 11 million CITIC credit card customers.
January 18
The 2010 China Internet Industry Annual Conference was held in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Beijing. Themed "Grasp the pulse of the internet economy to foster new growth points", the conference also released the Ten Key Events of China's Internet Development in 2010 and the Internet User Behavior Investigation Report in 2010.
January 21
WeChat Beta 1.0 for iPhone users was launched. This version allows users to import their QQ contacts but only has simple features such as instant messaging, photo sharing, and changing profile photos.
January 24
Tencent announced to set up the Tencent Industry Win-Win Fund, planning to invest RMB 5 billion to support outstanding and innovative companies in the Internet and related industries.
February
360 Total Security identified a 19-year Windows loophole (MS11-011), and Microsoft thanked it publicly. 360 Security Center has thus become the only Chinese PC security company that has received public thanks from Microsoft twice.
February 10
It was alleged that Alibaba Group was planning to privatize its B2B company listed in Hong Kong.
February 14
Sohu released its self-produced TV series Qian Duoduo Gets Married.
February 21
CEO Wei Zhe and COO Li Xuhui of the B2B business of Alibaba Group resigned due to their underperformance in maintaining the "customer first" values. Lu Zhaoxi, CEO of Taobao , replaced Wei Zhe as the new CEO of the B2B company.
February 22
360 Antivirus Software announced that it had passed the antivirus, anti-Trojan and anti-spyware software tests of the West Coast Labs, obtaining the Lab's highest-level Anti-Malware certification. This means that 360 Antivirus Software has the comprehensive ability to detect and destroy viruses, Trojans, and spyware.
February 22
Panguso , jointly backed by China Mobile and Xinhua News Agency, officially went alive to provide services for internet users.
February 23
Qihoo 360 announced to launch the 360 Group Buying open platform, allowing group buying websites to share the user resources of 360. This also signifies that Qihoo 360 has officially initiated the open platform strategy.
February 23
Taobao announced 2011 to the Year of "Open Taobao". As a co-builder of the macro-Taobao ecosphere, Alipay will provide utility bill payment and credit card payment services for 370 million users of Taobao .
February 28
China Unicom launched its own OMS operating system and a host of mobile phones built on it. The new WoPhone platform, previously known as UPhone, is China's first proprietary operating system for smart mobile terminals.
March 2
Sina and China Dongxiang (Group) Co., Ltd. jointly acquired 29% stake of wm18 .
March 9
IQIYI announced the number of its monthly unique visitors reached 148 million in February 2011, covering over 50% of China's online video users after it was launched ten months ago. In mid-March 2011, unique visitors of its iPad version exceeded 800,000, ranking first among the peers.
March 10
Weike, the first community-based marketing tool of Alipay, was officially launched, aiming to provide SNS-based payment and marketing methods. Businesses can issue coupons via Weike, users can pay for them via Alipay, and the funds will be used for public welfare, thus making Weike a platform integrating "communities,payment, marketing, and public welfare".
March 14
China Mobile and Guangzhou Municipal People's Government signed the strategic cooperation agreement on building the China Mobile southern base. Li Yue, CEO of China Mobile, and Wan Qingliang, Mayor and Deputy Party Secretary of Guangzhou, signed the agreement on behalf of each side.
March 15
Alipay opened agent payment feature on a large scale. When shopping online, users can choose to invite others to pay, and those being invited can complete the payment on the Alipay website, or by replying a short message with their mobile phone if they have activated the mobile payment service.
March 25
China Telecom established the E-Surfing Media Co., Ltd. in Jinqiao Modern Industry Service Park, Pudong District, Shanghai.
March 29
Alipay and Huashu Taobao Digital Technology Co., Ltd. announced in Hangzhou to launch the TV version of Alipay. Huashu TV users in Hangzhou can use Alipay accounts to pay for their online consumption via TV, thus connecting the transaction and payment links and making "TV Taobao" the first TV platform in China that supports shopping and payment on TV.
March 29
The number of users of China Telecom exceeded 100 million, making it the world's largest CDMA operator.
March 30
Qihoo 360 was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. With demand at 40 times the amount being raised, Qihoo 360 completed one of the most successful IPOs on American stock exchanges by Chinese companies in 2011.
March 31
Baidu closed its "Youa" marketplace.
April 12
Baidu application platform was fully opened; on June 16, Tencent announced to open eight platforms; on July 28, Sina Weibo open platform went live; and on September 19, Tmall under Alibaba Group announced its open platform strategy. In 2011, a number of Chinese internet giants announced their open platform strategies, changing the original operation mode and shifting the competition pattern to competition and cooperation.
April 12
Lashou raised USD 111 million.
April 15
Alipay announced its digital certificate would fully support Google Chrome, allowing users of Alipay digital certificates to pay their online consumption, utility bills, credit cards and others when using Chrome.
April 17
Meilishuo launched its first app for iPhone, signifying that the 13-month website has officially embraced the mobile internet strategy.
April 18
According to its IPO application file, Renren Inc. would conduct a private offering, and third-party investors composed of Alibaba Group, SMG and CITIC Securities agreed to purchase USD 110 million-worth shares of Renren Inc. at the issue price.
April 1
360buy raised a total of USD 1.5 billion from six funds including DST and Tiger Fund, and also individual celebrities.
April 6
Alipay and MasterCard Worldwide reached an agreement to officially launch MasterCard payment business in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. MasterCard credit card users can make payments directly via Alipay for their purchase on e-commerce platforms of Alibaba.
April 7
Sina Weibo started to use the new weibo domain, and upgrade the identification at the same time.
April 20
Alibaba Group and China CITIC Bank signed a strategic cooperation agreement, announcing to cooperate in such fields in express payment, pre-authorized payment and installment payment by credit cards, and online financing for SMEs.
April 20
Alipay and UC signed a strategic cooperation agreement to launch China's first safe mobile payment solution that supports payment right in the browser based on the framework of mobile browser and safe payment service.
April 21
T.qiyi , a video and entertainment forum of iQIYIwent live.
April 22
The Internet of Things Industry Alliance was established, composed of 28 relevant companies, colleges and universities.
April 24
The L-Sense mobile Internet advertising platform developed by WeLink, China's leading mobile advertising service provider, was officially launched for commercial use. It is China's first "mobile Internet advertising platform based on cloud computing" and first "free mobile business ecosystem".
April 25
With the advent of the second anniversary of 3G commercial operations, China Telecom Beijing Branch announced that it would promote mobile phone numbers starting with 180, the second 3G dedicated number segment of China Telecom, and offer a series of special offers to attract 3G mobile phone users.
April 26
Dianping obtained RMB 100 million investments from Trust Bridge Partners, Sequoia Capital, Qiming Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners, increasing its valuation to RMB 1 billion.
May 3
Alipay promised that in the case of financial losses due to the express payment service, users will be refunded in full by Alipay.
May 4
And Renren Inc., along with its subsidiary nuomi , got listed on the NYSE.
May 5
NQ Mobile US Inc. announced to issue 7.75 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at a price of USD 11.50, raising a total of USD 89.12 million (each ADS represents five A-share).
May 6
58 announced to obtain investments from Recruit.jp, a Japanese classifieds site. This is another capital injection into 58 after it completed the third round of financing worth USD 60 million in December 2010.
May 8
Vip obtained the second round of financing worth USD 50 million from top venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and DCM, securing a leadership over its peers.
May 9
Tencent invested RMB 450 million in Huayi Media.
May 9
Tyread , China Telecom's mobile reading service, lifted restrictions on users of China Mobile and China Unicom, in a move to increase its customer base.
May 10
Alibaba Group and Bank of Communications (BOCOM) signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement in Shanghai. New businesses such as express payment and BOCOM flagship shop on Tmall become the highlights in the bilateral cooperation.
May 10
Groupon.cn launched the "Group buying member" service. Through the effective feedback mechanism and optimized service chain, it aims to promote businesses to improve management and protect consumers' interests.
May 11
The "National Computer Health Day" was created on the initiative of 360 Total Security, along with other institutions and enterprises such as the Internet Society of China, Anti Network-Virus Alliance of China under the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China (CNCERT), ASUS and Haier.
May 11
According to the file Yahoo! submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jack Ma transferred, without its permission, the ownership of Alipay, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, to a Chinese-funded company held by Alibaba co-founder Xie Shihuang and himself. The dispute over Alipay between Yahoo! and Alibaba then came to the surface.
May 11
Jiayuan went public on the NASDAQ, raising USD 852 billion. It has become China's first listed matchmaking website and the world's first matchmaking website listed on the NASDAQ.
May 16
Youku launched dedicated video search service covering all mainstream video websites.
May 19
The domain jiaju was put into use after its purchase by Sina was confirmed.
May 23
China Telecom announced to launch mobile payment on a pilot basis in Beijing, and started to solicit the first batch of users.
May 31
The First Internet Open Conference, organized by Qihoo 360 under the guidance of the Internet Society of China, kicked off in Beijing, with the theme of "Openness, Integration and Development".
June 1
China Telecom announced that its gaming platform (play.cn) had attracted more than 10 million registered users in just nine months since it went live on February 28, 2010.
June 2
Walt Disney Pictures launched a movie promotion channel on youku , upgrading the cooperation between the two sides.
June 9
Alibaba Group and Industrial Bank Co., Ltd. announced that the two would conduct comprehensive cooperation in various fields such as express payment and co-branded credit cards, and initiate the bill inquiry and gift redeeming services.
June 12
The ticket booking service of 12306.cn was launched.
June 14
Jack Ma said at the press conference in Hangzhou that terminating the protocol control of Alipay was intended to help it get the third-party payment license, yet the move also made the "latent rules behind protocol control" public.
June 15
China Telecom (Australia) Corporation Limited started operation in Sydney. This represents a key move that China Telecom has made since it launched the overseas strategy in the Asia-Pacific region a decade ago, and the layout of four core arms in the region has basically taken shape.
June 16
Alibaba Group announced to divide Taobao into three independent companies, i.e., C2C platform taobao , B2C e-commerce service provider Tmall, and one-stop shopping search etao .
June 21
Tencent announced to open eight platforms including pengyou , qzone , t.qq , Tenpay, soso , cb.qq , QQ, and its e-commerce platform.
June 21
Alipay, along with hundreds of enterprises, set up the safe payment alliance, in a move to work together with banks, Internet companies, browser companies, third-party payment companies and e-commerce companies to safeguard the payment security of users and boost the development of China's e-commerce industry.
June 23
IQIYI launched the "iQIYI presents" strategy, setting the standards for self-produced online videos.
June 24
Qunar, one of China's largest travel booking giants, and Baidu, the world's largest Chinese search company, announced that the two sides would conduct in-depth strategic cooperation and Baidu would invest USD 306 million to become the largest shareholder of qunar .
June 26
It was reported that China Mobile had decided to turn over the operation of Fetion to the southern base of its Guangdong branch.
June 29
Baidu launched the mobile box computing platform, and its mobile open platform went live at the same time.
July 6
360buy and Jointown Pharmaceutical Group (Jointown) announced that the former would invest in ehaoyao under Jointown, making a key move in the B2C online pharmaceutical market.
July 6
Tencent spent HKD 892 million in acquiring 15.68% stake of Kingsoft, becoming its largest shareholder.
July 7
Jiayuan launched applications for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7.
July 8
The contract signing ceremony for the Procuratorate IoT Intelligent Management System Construction project was held in Huishan District Procuratorate of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. This is the first "Intelligent Procuratorate" IoT application project in China.
July 8
Suzhou Cloud Computing Innovation Platform, jointly built by Suzhou Economic and Information Technology Commission, Suzhou International Science-Park Data Center and Tsinghua University, was unveiled in the Suzhou Industrial Park.
July 11
Alipay announced to launch the quick login program, allowing users to log onto a number of e-commerce websites with their Alipay accounts. With the consent of users, these websites can share the delivery addresses and other information of users. So far 1,500 websites have joined the program, and the number is expected to reach 4,000 at the end of August.
July 12
Shanghai Pudong Smart City Research Institute released the first version of the smart city indicator system, the first of its kind in China, which consists of many indicators that are closely related to the everyday life of the residents.
July 14
The group buying service of Macau Doulao, a popular hotpot restaurant, was launched on Juhuasuan (ju.taobao ), becoming the first to post group buying sales of RMB 10 million in China.
July 15
Youku held a promotional meeting themed "First-class platform with best video resources". It purchased 150 hit TV series and 50 exclusive series from satellite TV stations in 2011, becoming the largest buyer of film and television copyrights.
July 28
Alibaba Group launched its independently developed operating system YunOS, the first large-scale application of cloud computing technology for mobile terminals in China. T-Kouch W700, the first smart phone built on Yun OS, was also launched at the same time.
July 28
Sina Weibo open platform went live.
July 29
Alibaba Group, Yahoo! and SB China Capital (SBCVC) signed the official agreement on the equity transfer of Alipay. Alipay will continue to provide services for Alibaba Group and the related companies, and Alibaba Group will obtain reasonable economic benefits from the holding company of Alipay.
July 29
Kaixin completed major upgrading of its open platform, increased the feature of "Updating information with records", and enabled the upgraded API2.0 to support session key, Oauth 1.0 and Oauth 2.0 authorization methods, realizing full openness from PC to mobile terminals.
August 3
Tencent and Shanghai Municipal People's Government announced that the two sides would sign an investment cooperation agreement on the construction of Tencent North China Cloud Computing Center and E-Commerce Base in Qingpu Industrial Park, Shanghai.
August 3
WeChat added the "People Nearby" function, attracting 15 million users.
August 16
Beijing Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd. unveiled its smart phones in Beijing. Adopting an asset-light mode and without having to cooperate with traditional mobile phone sales channels, Xiaomi allows people to reserve and buy smart phones via the official website or through cooperative telecommunication operators.
August 17
Tudou , led by its founder Wang Wei, held its IPO and successfully got listed on the NASDAQ.
From August 17 to 25
Sina invested a total of USD 66.4 million in the newly listed tudou , holding 9.05% stake worth USD 31.175 million. Wang Wei's equity decreased from 12.7% to 8.6%, still having the largest voting right.
August 19
Gaopeng Shanghai department started to lay off employees. In just one week, 13 substations including Qinhuangdao, Yantai and Nanjing were shut down, 18 substations including Shanghai, Hangzhou and Foshan reduced the staff, with the number of layoffs exceeding 400.
August 22
Qihoo 360 purchased the domain kouxin , and the domain name registrant has been changed to Qihoo 360. kouxin was registered in March 2006 under Cao Shu, the director of Qihoo 360 and was put on Ename at the time.
August 30
Dianping held a mobile Internet press conference in Beijing, announcing that the number of unique visitors of its mobile phone app had exceeded 10 million.
From August 17 to 25
According to the document No. 13D Sina submitted to the SEC on the morning of August 30, from August 17 to 25, Sina invested a total of USD 66.4 million in the newly listed video website tudou , holding 9.05% of its stake.
September 1
11.3 million transactions were conducted via Alipay, which amounted to RMB 3.04 billion, breaking the record of RMB 2.91 billion during the Singles' Day shopping festival on November 11, 2010.
September 5
Alipay announced that it had reached an acquisition agreement with the third-party payment company under Oncard International. This is the first publicly disclosed acquisition by domestic third-party payment companies since the central bank issued the first batch of third-party payment licenses in May 2011.
September 6
China Telecom launched the 2011 IPTV terminal centralized procurement. 18 terminal makers participated in the centralized procurement, of which 17 competed for 2.83 million SD terminals and 17 for 0.88 million HD terminals.
September 6
China Mobile and Datang Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Beijing. The two sides will capitalize on their own strength in resources to conduct comprehensive cooperation in such fields as standardizing the mobile communication technology, accelerating advancing TD-SCDMA test and application, and developing international market for their innovative technologies.
September 9
The completion and acceptance ceremony of the Nansha Islands mobile communication base station was held in Beijing. The Information Technology Department of the Chinese Navy Headquarters signed the maintenance and management MOU and strategic cooperation MOU.
September 19
Tmall (Taobao Mall) under Alibaba Group announced the open platform strategy.
September 20
Alipay announced that it would conduct comprehensive strategic cooperation with Newegg, the largest online digital product retailer in the United States, to help it expand the Chinese online shopping market. The two sides will also extend their cooperation to wireless payment products and work together to experiment with the offline payment products and internal settlement and clearing services for enterprises.
September 22
The COG 2011 Information Security Forum was held in Shanghai. Nearly 350 people in China's hacker community attended the forum, and the domestic security leaders released the Hacker Self-disciplinary Convention.
September 26
Tencent launched the mobile advertising platform MobWIN, making a key move in the mobile advertising market.
September 27
Renren Inc. acquired the video sharing website 56 with USD 80 million.
September 28
Alipay passed the Payment Card Industry (PCI) certification. Launched by international organization such as VISA, American Express, JCB and MasterCard, PCI certification represents the most strict and highest-level financial machinery safety certification standards.
September 30
Douban announced that it had received the third round of financing, raising USD 50 million from Trust Bridge Partners, Sequoia Capital and BAI. Trust Bridge Partners also invested in its second round of financing.
October 5
China filed bankruptcy application to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta, becoming the first Chinese Internet company listed in the U.S. that has applied for bankruptcy.
October 8
Rong360 was launched as an online platform providing financing and loan research and recommendation services.
October 10
Tmall announced to upgrade its seller management system, greatly increasing technical service fees and penalty fees. On October 11, nearly 50,000 netizens formed the Anti-Taobao Alliance, and launched malicious operations targeting some big sellers of Tmall, placing orders, giving negative comments and refusing to pay. They also protested with banners in front of Alibaba Headquarters in Hangzhou.
October 18
China Telecom released its integrated messaging product "Yi Liao". Based on the address book in mobile phones, the product integrates such functions as multimedia message, voice chat, SMS, video chat, teleconference, and microblog sharing, and serves as a real-name social networking communication platform cross platforms, terminals and operators.
October 19
Letv and tudou announced to set up a joint venture, and plan to make an initial investment of RMB 300 million to purchase and distribute the copyrights of new dramas, and jointly establish a video cooperation platform.
October 20
Alibaba Group announced that Taobao would spin off its group buying platform Juhuasuan and make it an independent subsidiary under Alibaba Group.
October 24
Kingsoft appointed Dr. Zhang Hongjiang as its CEO. Dr. Zhang used to be the Managing Director of Microsoft's Advanced Technology Center (ATC) and Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group (ARD).
October 25
The personal identity verification channel of Tencent's microblogging platform was launched.
October 29
Lashou submitted the IPO prospectus to the SEC, planning to raise USD 100 million on the NASDAQ.
October 31
Huawei held the 2011 Huawei Cloud Computing Conference & Partners' Convention, announcing to launch the IT product line and enter the cloud computing field. Its cloud computing team is expected to have more than 10,000 members in 2012.
October 31
Tencent announced to invest in kaixin , a Chinese social networking platform. kaixin introduced Tencent as a strategic investor through issuing new shares.
November 7
China Mobile and the government of Inner Mongolia announced their plan to jointly build the largest, most technologically advanced and most energy-saving cloud computing center in China.
November 9
China Mobile, KT of South Korea and NTT DOCOMO of Japan held the tripartite strategic cooperation summit in Tokyo, Japan, reviewing the work in the past year and making deployments for the next stage.
November 11
The Singles' Day, the volume of transactions on Tmall exceeded RMB 3.36 billion and 33.69 million transactions were conducted via Alipay on the day, breaking the world's records for another time. Specifically, 1.71 million transactions were conduced via the wireless payment service, and 11.5 million through the express payment service.
November 14
Huawei and Symantec Corporation announced that Huawei would purchase 49% stake of Huawei Symantec to take 100% of it.
November 15
Sohu announced that from December, it would unify the user names of its six products, including the portal website, microblogging, video and blogging platforms, pinglun.sohu and club.sohu .
November 15
Yinyuetai launched the world's first data-based MV chart. All the data on the chart are generated by the users' own behavior.
November 16
Meilishuo , an e-commerce sharing website, raised USD 20 million in the third round of financing which was led by GGV Capital, and other investors included Sequoia Capital, BlueRun Ventures and ZERO2IPO Ventures. Hu Lei, Vice President of GGV Capital, became a board member of meilishuo .
November 18
Juhuasuan launched the vegetable group buying campaign. 42,000 netizens in two cities bought 300,000 kilos of vegetables to help the vegetable growers.
November 21
Expedia, an online travel booking company, and Renren Inc. announced that Expedia had purchased the latter's stake in elong , whose American Depositary Shares (ADS), with every at USD 23, totals USD 72.4 million.
November 22
360buy launched its luxury shopping website 360top , making a high-profile move into the luxury market.
November 22
Shanda reached a consolidation agreement with Premium Lead Company Limited (parent company) and New Era Investment Holding Ltd. (consolidated subsidiary). According to the agreement, the parent company would purchase all the remaining tradable shares of Shanda at a price of USD 20.675 per share or USD 41.35 per ADS, and the transaction values Shanda at approximately USD 2.3 billion on a fully diluted basis.
November 24
QIYI held a press conference to announce its "QIYI presents" strategy and cooperation with Motorola. On November 26, QIYI announced brand upgrading, planning to use the "iQIYI" brand and release new logos.
December 5
Alipay announced the number of express payment users had exceeded 40 million, and transactions with express payments accounted for more than 50% of all transactions of Alipay.
December 6
Qihoo 360 issued an official statement denying the allegations from Citron Research. Citron Research is an American grassroots short-seller. From November 1, 2011, it released six reports targeting Qihoo 360.
December 6
China Telecom Cloud Computing Data Center was announced to be built in Huhehot.
December 8
Youku went public on the NYSE (stock code: YOKU) at an issue price of USD 12.8. It issued 15.8477 million ADS, and raised about USD 203 million in this IPO, becoming the world's first video website being independently listed in the United States.
December 12
The daily transactions on Juhuasuan amounted to RMB 282million.
December 13
Huoli Century Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., a mobile application developer for flight arrangements, confirmed that it had obtained the second round of financing, raising USD 15 million from MatrixPartners China and Greylock, with China Renaissance Partners as financial consultant.
December 14
The Sohu microblogging platform announced that it would donate RMB 2 million and work with Yu Jianrong, professor of the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, to launch the "Sohu Microblog Public Welfare Platform", the first of its kind in China.
December 16
The groundbreaking ceremony of Tencent Shenchi Cloud Computing Data Center was held in ShenShan Special Cooperation Zone. When completed, it will be the largest cloud computing data center in South China, providing quality services for billions of internet users there. It will also offer an open platform serving massive third-party apps and provide open interfaces to bring about the cluster effect for the development of the internet industry.
December 19
The Spring Festival shopping event on Juhuasuan registered total transactions of RMB 464 million in a year, saving RMB 600 million for users.
December 19
Alipay announced to spin off its Jifenbao business (jf.alipay ) and make it an independent company. This is the first time that Alipay has separated its business.
December 20
Alipay announced to upgrade the secured transaction open plan to provide payment solutions for Witkey, surveying and rebating websites, signifying its full openness to external online transaction markets.
December 21
IQIYI became the first to highlight the feature of video ads using the "floating display" technology.
December 21
Data on 6 million users of CSDN, an online developers' community, were released by hackers, and information on some Tianya users was also breached later. The incidents of user information leakage drew high attention from netizens to cybersecurity and information security.
December 23
Premier Wen Jiabao held an executive meeting of the State Council, clarifying the roadmap and main objectives for the development of the next-generation internet: by the end of 2013, conduct small-scale pilot applications of IPv6 and form a mature commercial application model and technology evolution route; from 2014 to 2015, conduct large-scale deployments and commercial applications of IPv6, and prepare for the transition from IPv4 to IPv6.
December 28
Juhuasuan released its open strategy for 2012. Its turnover exceeded RMB 10 billion, helping 10.83 million users save RMB 11.05 billion.
December 30
Sohu announced its self-produced online program Insight ("Da Shi Ye") had received 300 million visits, and had been sold to TV stations. On the same day, its creative adverting platform went live, taking the lead in entering the age of video advertising 2.0
2011
The service income of e-commerce companies exceeded RMB 100 billion to RMB 143.2 billion.
January 25
Yu Jianrong, professor of the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, launched a microblog-based campaign to rescue child beggars, calling on netizens to take photos or videos of child beggars and post them to their microblog and inform the campaign's dedicated account. In less than half a month, the account attracted nearly 70,000 followers and released more than 1,000 photos of child beggars.
Early 2011
Microblog-based campaigns such as "Crackdown on abduction via microblog" and "Taking photos to rescue child beggars" drew nationwide attention. On July 23, information about the Wenzhou bullet train collision spread quickly via microblogging platforms and sparked heated discussions. On December 16, the Beijing Municipal Regulations on the Administration of Microblogging Services was promulgated, stipulating that any organization or individual must register microblog accounts with real names. Other cities followed suit, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Tianjin. A series of incidents show that microblogs have played an important role in expressing and guiding public opinions. According to data from CNNIC, the number of China's microblog users reached 250 million in 2011, an increase of 296% from the previous year.
June 21
"Guo Meimei Baby", whose identity was verified by Sina Weibo as the "commercial general manager" for the "China Red Cross Chamber of Commerce", showed off her extraordinarily luxury lifestyle online and drew wide attention from netizens and media, which consequently put the Red Cross Society of China in a credibility crisis.
June 2
The seminar on the eighth "Red tour of Beijing online media" was held in Beijing. From June 7 to 10, participants followed the footprints of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai and Jiaxing to experience their revolutionary spirit and celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Party.
From June 7 to 10
The eighth "Red tour of Beijing online media" themed "Following historical footprints to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Party" was carried out in Shanghai. The Shanghai Declaration and the Red Boat Declaration on the Red Tour of Beijing Online Media were announced.
July 12
The Media Research Institute of Journalism & Communication, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and the Social Sciences Academic Press jointly released the Report on the Development of China's New Media 2011 in Beijing. Through the research on 210 major public opinion incidents in China, it is found that in 67% of the incidents, online opinions played a positive role in prompting governments to solve problems. Online opinions have now become a powerful force in the Chinese society.
August 11
Beijing First Intermediate People's Court amended the judgment in the final trial regarding the case that Cai Jiming, Professor of Tsinghua University, sued Baidu over infringement. It ruled that Baidu's negligence of duty resulted in the expansion of infringements by online users, so Baidu shall assume the corresponding responsibility and pay Professor Cai RMB 100,000 in compensation for emotional distress.
August 23
With the theme of "Connecting China - Responsibility and Vitality", the 10th China Internet Conference kicked off at the Beijing International Convention Center.
November 21
The 11th China Online Media Forum kicked off in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Themed "Advance the development of online media and promote the prosperity of the internet culture", it consisted of four sub-forums on such topics as "Spread core values and enhance the guiding role of culture", "improve the influence and reliability with the help of technology", "lead the microblogging era to improve the online public opinion ecology", and "keep up with mobile internet to expand development space".
December 12
The 2011 Government Microblog Annual Summit was held. By the end of October 2011, the number of government accounts on microblogging platforms surged from 552 in the previous year to 18,132. Currently there are six modes of government microblogs, including police microblogs and microblogs for releasing official information, indicating that government microblogging has become mature, and did a good job in aspects of the mass line, media professionalism, responsiveness, transparency, system building, management, and guiding public opinions.
