In the more fragmented American market, Comcast and AT&T are tops, with Time Warner Cable and Verizon following. They'll never catch China, though. While broadband is a mature market here, the growth rates in China are still staggering, with both China Telecom and China Unicom adding 9 million users a year. That's as much as Verizon's entire broadband customer base. What does it all mean? While it may be hard for you to move to Beijing and become a Web developer who speaks fluent Mandarin, you can certainly keep your eye on American tech and Internet companies who plan to tap into the vast Chinese market. Assuming, of course, the Chinese government allows it. As Google has learned, it's important to watch your step in the Middle Kingdom. -- Don Willmott How's Your Mandarin?
Just to follow up on my column about China's economic and technological ascendance, here's a statistic that should get you thinking: Twenty percent of the world's broadband subscribers are Chinese, getting their connection from either China Telecom, the world's largest provider with 55 million subscribers, or China Unicom, with 40 million. The bronze medal lands in Japan, where NTT serves about 18 million customers. In the more fragmented American market, Comcast and AT&T are tops, with Time Warner Cable and Verizon following. They'll never catch China, though. While broadband is a mature market here, the growth rates in China are still staggering, with both China Telecom and China Unicom adding 9 million users a year. That's as much as Verizon's entire broadband customer base. What does it all mean? While it may be hard for you to move to Beijing and become a Web developer who speaks fluent Mandarin, you can certainly keep your eye on American tech and Internet companies who plan to tap into the vast Chinese market. Assuming, of course, the Chinese government allows it. As Google has learned, it's important to watch your step in the Middle Kingdom. -- Don Willmott
In the more fragmented American market, Comcast and AT&T are tops, with Time Warner Cable and Verizon following. They'll never catch China, though. While broadband is a mature market here, the growth rates in China are still staggering, with both China Telecom and China Unicom adding 9 million users a year. That's as much as Verizon's entire broadband customer base. What does it all mean? While it may be hard for you to move to Beijing and become a Web developer who speaks fluent Mandarin, you can certainly keep your eye on American tech and Internet companies who plan to tap into the vast Chinese market. Assuming, of course, the Chinese government allows it. As Google has learned, it's important to watch your step in the Middle Kingdom. -- Don Willmott