By Li Zhiwei and Wang Shuhuai, Illustration by Li Ruining: In February 2004, Fu Changbao, who lived in Tongzhou District of Beijing, suddenly had an idea: to create an online forum for the "Xinhua Lian Jiayuan" neighborhood where he resided.
"To facilitate daily contact among the more than 20,000 residents of the neighborhood and also to realize my long-held entrepreneurial dream," said Fu Changbao. A few days later, he "impulsively" quit his job at a certain portal website and, together with a friend, applied for a domain name, purchased a server, and launched the forum.
In March 2010, Fu Changbao's forum had transformed into the largest online community in Tongzhou - the Batong Network. Its content primarily focused on life and service information in the Tongzhou area, with daily visits exceeding 600,000. "It can meet the needs of about 300,000 to 400,000 residents in the surrounding area."
This was an unambiguously "small website." The operation team initially consisted of only two people, and now there are still only a dozen or so. The 600,000 click-throughs in the vast ocean of the internet were but a drop in the bucket.
But this did not affect the enthusiasm of Fu Changbao and his companions. They utilized the network platform to organize volunteers to visit nursing homes on weekends to show love and care, and to orphanages for help and education... "During the two sessions of the Tongzhou District government, with the support of the local government, we collected over 400 'proposals' from netizens." Fu Changbao was proud as he spoke, mentioning flower booking services.
According to statistics from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), by the end of 2009, the total number of websites registered within China reached 3.23 million. Among them, apart from the well-known over 1,000 large websites, 99% were small and medium-sized websites.
"The Capillaries of China's Internet"
With one or two people and a little over a thousand yuan in funds, one could establish a piece of their own territory or even achieve an entrepreneurial dream. This is precisely the allure that the internet has brought and will continue to bring to people.
These numerous small and medium-sized websites have daily click-through rates ranging from millions to merely a few thousand, satisfying the specific needs of different niche groups. A small staff is a significant characteristic of these websites. Survey data shows that in 2009, among Chinese online communities, websites operated by teams of four people or fewer accounted for 76.9%, and the situation of "one person, one website" was not uncommon.
From a historical perspective, the boundaries between "large" websites and "small" websites sometimes aren't very clear. In May 1996, Ningbo native Ding Lei, then 25 years old, set up his first "Firebird" BBS on Chinanet simply to meet some netizens while entertaining himself. In early 1999, Ma Huateng, then 28 years old, nervously uploaded the first "OICQ" program to his website. At that time, the Tencent company he founded with friends only had five employees. Today, the former's NetEase has become one of the important portals of China's internet, and the latter's QQ has become a crucial choice for instant messaging for hundreds of millions of Chinese netizens.
Objectively speaking, the vast majority of the millions of small and medium-sized websites will be fleeting like fireflies, but this does not hinder the young webmasters full of passion from dreaming the same dreams as Ding Lei or Ma Huateng.
Shi Shutong, 22 years old this year, graduated from Xiamen City University in 2009. While still in her second year of university, she and her senior planned and established a "Dictionary Lookup" website specifically for elementary school students, with functions including "Chinese Dictionary," "Idiom Dictionary," as well as poems and couplets. "Parents are very supportive of our website," she said, "The usual traffic on the website is around 130,000, and the monthly gross profit reaches 70,000 yuan." Her words were filled with anticipation.
"Small and medium-sized websites are the capillaries of China's internet, providing nourishment for its healthy development," commented Liu Xianjun, Secretary-General of the China Information Promotion Alliance.
Hao Xianghong, Secretary-General of the China Youth Internet Association, believed that innovation in the internet fundamentally lies not in technology but in the innovation of applications. "Millions of small and medium-sized websites will be an important force for future innovation on the internet."
"Not a Total Crackdown"
However, in recent months, ripples have quietly arisen in the industry of small and medium-sized websites.
In January 2010, Zheng Li, the CEO born in the '80s with assets worth over a hundred million yuan and founder of the well-known domestic website "Fenbei.com," was arrested for establishing a pornographic chat website.
This was just one of the typical cases exposed during the grand-scale internet rectification campaign that began last year. Statistics show that by February 10 this year, relevant departments had already closed down over 16,000 pornographic and vulgar websites and more than 136,000 websites without registration.
Most small and medium-sized websites supported the rectification action, but in some places, to thoroughly investigate bad information, the entire server room was shut down, and many legal websites were also implicated. The sudden storm left many small and medium-sized websites somewhat caught off guard.
Statistics show that currently, over 100,000 small and medium-sized websites across the country remain temporarily or permanently closed. Many small websites that had already achieved profitability have seen their income streams cut off.
"Cracking down on vulgarity is beneficial for the healthy development of China's internet. However, in practical operations, the legitimate rights and interests of small and medium-sized websites should also be protected," said Fu Changbao.
Li Hong, Deputy Director of the Reporting and Acceptance Center for Illegal and Spam Information of the China Internet Association, admitted that during the process of internet governance, "there may be some accidental killings or injuries." But she simultaneously expressed, "The purpose of management is absolutely not to completely eliminate, but to promote healthy and orderly development."
"We will strive to make precise strikes in the future, reduce accidental injuries, and hope that webmasters of small and medium-sized websites strictly manage, so everyone can jointly create a good network environment," said Li Hong.
The Confusion of Website Registration
On February 23, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the "Pilot Implementation Plan for Further Verifying the Authenticity of Website Registration Information" document, clearly defining "website owners as internet information service providers, including both entities and individuals." This officially recognized the status of hundreds of thousands of individual webmasters. The personal website application service that was suspended in mid-December last year was also reopened for registration during the same period.
The document stipulated that "access service units shall collect and retain color front-facing headshots of website managers at the registration site," implementing the "local registration" system.
While this brought hope to many small and medium-sized websites, it also caused confusion. In reality, many websites rented servers located far away. For most website operators, traveling long distances to the server location for registration, photography, and various procedures would incur costs much higher than operating the website itself. "This means that a child in a remote mountainous area almost cannot open their own website," said a small website webmaster.
Fu Changbao's original server was in Langfang, Hebei, "because it was cheap." After the new regulations were issued, he calculated the costs and moved the server to Beijing. Meanwhile, more websites chose to "go abroad." Statistics show that purchasing 100M of overseas space and migrating the website costs only about $10.
"This actually increases the difficulty for the state to implement control over these websites, which is detrimental to the development of China's internet," said Professor Ke Huixin from Communication University of China, who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Additionally, according to regulations, commercial BBS registration requires ICP certification. The prerequisite for obtaining ICP certification is having registered capital of over 1 million yuan. For the hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized website webmasters in China, "if you have 1 million yuan in capital, you wouldn't do this."
Industry insiders estimated that among the current millions of forums in China, those that have truly completed registration do not exceed 3,000.
In interviews, multiple small website webmasters expressed understanding and welcome for the introduction of the registration system. "Actually, the opinions about registration are not against the system itself, but rather the high approval costs and complex processes," said a website webmaster.
Calling for Support
"Difficulties in registration and insufficient startup funds for young people have become bottlenecks in the development of China's small and medium-sized websites," summarized Li Mingshun, Vice President of Beijing Kangsheng Chuangxiang Company.
Li Mingshun has 10 years of experience in the internet industry. "I think the greatest advantage of this industry is that it doesn't matter how old you are or how much money you have; as long as you're willing to learn, you can start a business."
At the recently concluded national two sessions, Ke Huixin submitted a proposal titled "Increasing Support for Small and Medium-Sized Websites." She believed that as builders and promoters of China's green network culture, small and medium-sized websites bear important responsibilities, and the state should provide strong support in areas such as market access, business supervision, and tax preferences.
Ke Huixin particularly proposed that the "online video review" service for "hosting services" should be conducted. Through online video, using a marked curtain as the background, shooting a color front-facing photo of the website manager can achieve the same effect: strengthening internet management, preventing the loss of website operators, and benefiting the state's more comprehensive and effective control over the internet.
Lu Deqing, founder of the "Aimei Medical" website, said, "I hope that through legislation or other means, the internet industry can have more enlightened and relaxed policies, which will promote innovation and launch services and products more beneficial to society."
"Many issues are actually related to improving the relevant services of the government," said Xin Renzhou, Deputy Director of the Industrial Policy Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. "Regarding internet development, government departments should supervise on one hand and provide public services on the other. Most importantly, relevant laws and regulations should be established and improved to ensure that internet regulation is carried out according to law."
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