Comparison of Internet Development between China and South Korea

Some people think that the Internet is a brand-new production tool and the fastest poverty alleviation tool in human history. Others say that the Internet is an insurmountable gap, which will bring about a "digital gap" between the rich and the poor and between urban and rural areas. In this respect, we think it is the former. The emergence of the Internet has brought poor countries, regions and poor people a chance to stand up again.

Productivity is the fundamental factor, technology is always physical, but people are active and everything depends on the perfect combination of people and technology. If any country, company or individual remains complacent, the result will be counterproductive.

The essence of Internet is information flow and information openness. With the popularity of the Internet, information will benefit everyone. The arrival of the digital age may bring opportunities to underdeveloped countries, regions and individuals. Perhaps we should have a clear understanding now, that is, the value of network economy lies not in how much tangible wealth and profit it can bring to society and enterprises immediately, but in that it can create a new social form, provide a platform for all members of society to improve their social ability and economic creativity, and make almost all industries set up at a new starting point, so that enterprises can realize rapid accumulation of wealth and leap-forward development.

South Korea is located on the Korean peninsula in Asia, with an area of 99,237 square kilometers and a population of about 48 million. Its economic level ranks in the forefront of Asian countries and its economic growth rate ranks in the forefront of the world.

As one of the established "Four Little Dragons in Asia", South Korea started its economic take-off in 1970s, creating an economic miracle comparable to that of Japan. In terms of output value, chemical fiber industry was the pillar industry in Korea in 1980s, while electrical appliances and electronics have been in the first place since 1990s. At the end of 1990s, major industries in South Korea entered a mature stage one after another, facing severe challenges of slowing growth and weakening international competitiveness. In addition, the Asian financial crisis has dealt a heavy blow to South Korea's traditional economy, prompting the Korean government to realize that 2 1 century is an era when knowledge and information determine international competitiveness, and should vigorously develop the digital information industry. After several years of development, Korea's digital information industry has made remarkable achievements. Without much publicity, South Korea has developed into one of the fastest growing countries in Asia, keeping pace with Singapore and Hong Kong. According to the information of the Ministry of Information and Communication of the Republic of Korea, with the strong support of the far-sighted Korean government, South Korea has completed the installation of optical cables nationwide, realizing high-speed Internet and telecommunications services.

High-speed optical fiber backbone networks in all parts of Korea will be completed in 2002, when the transmission speed of Internet information in Korea will be increased by 100 times. Since 2000, the government of Han Yuanhe has invested 40 trillion won (65,438+0,200 won 65,438+0). By 2005, ultra-high-speed information and communication networks will be built nationwide, and most Internet users in Korea will use the newly-built ultra-high-speed communication networks. Home users will enjoy 10Mbps and bandwidth, and personal mobile users will enjoy 2Mbps bandwidth *, so people will be able to obtain high-quality MMS services at low prices anytime and anywhere.

According to the survey results of the information and communication department in 2000 released by the Korea Statistics Office on April 24th, 2000/kloc-0, last year, Korean nationals used computers 17.2 hours per week, with an average of 2.5 hours per day. It is nearly three times more than 1997 (5.9 hours). The time spent using commercial PC for communication or surfing the Internet has also increased by 2.5 times compared with the same period of last year, which is an amazing figure.

In 2000, the average household computer ownership rate reached 46.5%, equivalent to one computer for every two households, while 1997 was 29%. As for the main use of computers, 40.4% people use PCs for communication or surfing the Internet, which is five times that of 1997. 3 out of every 65,438+00 households (365,438+0.4%) installed commercial PC communication or dedicated internet access; More than half (5 1.6%) of Korean residents over 6 years old can operate computers.

Nearly 8 households (77.2%) have mobile phones per 10 household, and mobile phones have completely become a necessity. Only 17.8% of households in rural fishing villages have private internet lines, which is lower than that in urban areas (35.3%), and the proportion of people with computer operation ability is also 34.6%, which is 55.9% in urban areas. Good software, hardware and cultural environment make Korean information industry deeply rooted in people's hearts, which is conducive to the further development of Korean information industry.

In order to develop the digital information industry, the Korean government has put forward a series of preferential policies. For example, 1 October 3 1,1,20065438, the Ministry of Information and Communication of Korea issued the "Revitalization Support Plan". Com enterprises ",which stipulates that outstanding Internet enterprises developing overseas in the future will receive financial and administrative support from the government. In addition, in order to solve the shortage of funds. Because of the difficulties in the operation of com enterprises, people decided to set up a special fund. Com enterprises with a capital of 654.38+05 billion won in February. At the same time, the government will invest 65.438+06 billion won this year, and plans to invest 654.38+0 trillion won to develop South Korea's software industry by 2005. According to the policy of building a strong software country announced by the Ministry of Information and Communication of South Korea on the 26th, after the plan is realized in 2005, the production scale of domestic software industry in South Korea will reach 37. 12 trillion won, and the export volume will also reach 3.3 billion US dollars, ranking among the top seven in the world. In addition, it is also decided to increase the number of IT support centers in overseas marketing frontier bases from the current two (Silicon Valley in the United States and Beijing in China) to six (Boston in the United States, Tokyo in Japan, Shanghai in China and Scotland in the United Kingdom) this year, and six new IT support centers will be added next year, with a total planned operation of 12.

At the same time, South Korea has also put forward a grand "e-government" plan, which is planned to be realized in 2002. By then, all government affairs related to citizens and enterprises, such as handling letters and visits, fund allocation, taxation, social insurance and education administration, will be realized on the Internet. [ 1]

Looking at the development of Internet in South Korea and comparing it with China, we feel that there are still some problems in the development of Internet in China, so we might as well discuss them here.

I. Comparison of relevant basic data

Let's first analyze the current situation of Internet development in China and South Korea based on some data. The following data are from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) and Korea Internet Network Information Center (KNIC).

About the data survey of national information centers, the content is slightly different. For example, South Korea's related reports focus more on macro-surveys, such as the number of service providers, Internet interconnection points, and the number of hosts in the domain. China's report pays more attention to the micro, especially the investigation and analysis of Internet users, such as the distribution of users, the proportion of users, the income ratio and so on. However, some of them are data from Datong survey, and we mainly compare the data from the following three aspects.

Number of Internet users:

China Korea

1998.7- 1 175,000 3 103,000

1999.7-4 million10.86 million

July 2000-16900 1640000

200 1. 1.225 million 20.93 million

Since the 1990s, South Korea has been committed to the development of the Internet. According to the existing historical statistics of Korea Internet Center, there were138,000 people in Korea in 1994 and1634,000 people in 1997. The above table lists the statistical data from 1998 to August 2000. Judging from the current situation, the number of netizens in China and South Korea is basically the same, but the total population of South Korea is only 45 million, so for South Korea, the number of netizens has accounted for 43% of the total population. China has a population of 65.438+0.2 billion, and the number of netizens only accounts for 654.38+0.8% of the national population. At the end of February 2000, there were 65438+904 million netizens in South Korea, which increased to 20.9 million by the end of March this year, an increase of nearly 3.9 percentage points. There are 20.93 million netizens, which means that among all people over 7 years old in Korea, the proportion of netizens accounts for 48.6%.

Number of domain name registrations:

. Cn domain. kr domain

1998.79,4 1526, 166

1999.729,045207,023

2000.7 - 2000.899,734493.69 1

According to the statistical report of Korean Internet, the domain name registration record under Kr in Korea is 1993, which is 6 1, which has increased from 1997 to 8045. However, the domain name registered under China Cn grew slowly until 2000, which was out of proportion to the number of netizens in China and the development of Internet in China.

According to related reports, although the number of domain names registered under Cn in China has not increased much, according to the authoritative top agent in international domain, the new website authorized by ICANN recently released the China international domain Index report for the second quarter of 2000. Statistics show that as of June 30th, 2000, there were 477,900 international domain registered in Chinese mainland, of which "com" was 4 10900, accounting for 86%. Net "is 57,300, accounting for 12%, while". Org "is 9,700, accounting for 86%. Similar to domestic domain names, international domain's registration is mainly concentrated in Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai. Guangdong ranks first with the registration rate of 19.82%, followed by Beijing 14.25% and Shanghai1.19. There are only 99,734 domain names registered under Cn in China, but there are as many as 477,900 in international domain. The number of domain names registered in international domain has fully reached nearly five times that registered in China. It may be said that the number of domain names registered in China as a whole is equivalent to that in South Korea, but the number of domain names registered under Cn is small.

Number of sites and IP addresses:

Number of WWW websites in China and number of Korean IP addresses * 256

1998.73,700 17,053

1999.79,90623,9 17

2000.727,28945.242

Second, the problems in the development of Internet in China

From the comparison of the above data, we can see at least three obvious problems, that is, the proportion of netizens in the total population of the country is too small, the number of domain names registered under CN is too small, and the number of websites is too small, which reflects that most people are just browsing, not using the Internet. But these are only superficial problems. In fact, there are more problems hidden behind it. Start with the superficial problems first, and then make a deeper analysis from the outside to the inside.

1, number of Internet users and groups

As the previous data shows, the number of netizens in China only accounts for 1.4% of the national population, so it is still a blank for more rural people to surf the Internet.

With the development of Internet technology, the developed areas in China will be more developed and the backward areas will be more backward. In a word, it will further strengthen, not weaken, the existing dual pattern of sharp contrast between urban and rural areas in China. For a long time, digital China in the city and traditional China in the countryside will coexist, and the polarization between the rich and the poor will continue.

The realization of internet technology needs a highly developed economic foundation and advanced high-tech and high-tech talents as support. But these are extremely scarce in most rural areas of China. At present, what rural areas need is not the most advanced technology such as the Internet, but suitable technologies such as soil and water ecological conservation, variety improvement, farming and cultivation technology reform, small mechanized farm tools, diversified management, crop pest control, crop drought-resistant and water-saving irrigation, and farmland water conservancy planning.

According to the statistics of China Internet Information Center, by the end of 2000, there were 22.5 million netizens in China. Therefore, for a few percent of people in China, surfing the Internet is a "wealth" game. For farmers whose annual income is in 300 yuan, surfing the Internet 120 yuan is absolutely unaffordable.

Then let's analyze the people who are already online. According to the statistics of China Internet Network Information Center in July 2000, Internet users in China have the following characteristics:

Under 18,18-2425-3031-3536-4041-4551-6060.

1.65%46.77%29. 18% 10.03%5.59%5.07% 1.30%0.4 1%

The distribution of user industries is as follows:

Business administration, taxation, transportation, commerce and trade of the party and government administrative organs.

5.09%2.78%2.80%9. 13%

Law on Public Prosecution of Financial and Insurance Information and Consulting Services and Social Services

5.04%4.58%4.48% 1.53%

Culture, entertainment and sports, news media and advertising, scientific research, education, post and communication.

2.76%2.26% 12.63%2.83%

Computer and IT, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries and water conservancy.

13.60%3.50%0.62%26.37%

Per capita monthly income of family (unit: RMB)

Below 500, 501-10001-20002001-40004001-60006000.

8.26%28. 19%37.77% 18.45%4.48%2.85%

Through the analysis of the above three groups of data,176% of the people aged from 8 to 30, and 74.22% have a per capita income of less than 2,000 yuan. From the perspective of the industry distribution of netizens, this is a distinctive group. They are young, well-educated, with relatively high income, mainly company employees and professional and technical personnel. Because of their mastery of information and network technology, their positive recognition, in-depth understanding and good understanding of the Internet. Or most of them are young people who work in white-collar jobs soon after graduating from college.

Although the Korea Internet Information Center does not have such a detailed report, according to the information I learned in Seoul, the Internet access rate of Korean government agencies, scientific research and educational institutions is 100%.

In the first half of 20001,Internet Metrix Company, a Korean investigation media, commissioned by the Ministry of Information and Communication, conducted a quarterly survey on the Internet popularity of Korean people. They interviewed 3582 families by telephone and got the results. The results show that the average weekly online time of each Internet user has dropped from 1 1.73 hours in February last year to 10.67 hours now. Among the surveyed users, 58. 1% searched information online, 19.9% played games online and entertained, and 14.8% sent emails. 3. 1% is used for studying, 1.5% for chatting, 1.3% for browsing stock information and online trading, 1. 1% for online shopping and booking services. The survey also found that the gender difference among Korean netizens is narrowing. Among the 20.9 million netizens, there are 8.97 million male netizens 1 1.96 million female netizens, accounting for 57. 1% and 42.9% respectively. Compared with 66.9% and 33. 1% three months ago. [2]

2. domain name registration.

As mentioned above, there are only 99,734 registered domain names in China, but there are as many as 477,900 international domains, and the number of registered domain names in international domains is nearly five times that of China. People can't help asking: What happened to China's domain name? This phenomenon is rare in other countries. The increase in the number of foreign domain names not only increases the international information flow and squeezes out valuable international channel resources, but also makes a large amount of foreign exchange flow out of the country and into the pockets of foreign companies.

Judging from the domain name registration process, the domestic domain name registration process is complex and has a long period. Domestic domain name applications must be submitted by legal persons, and enterprises need to submit a series of written applications, forms and documents, and wait for dozens of days, at least ten days, before being approved. However, agents in international fields, such as China Domain Name System, a new website, provide a very simple and fast registration process. No matter individual users or enterprise users, they only need to fill in a simple form online, and they can successfully own their own domain names within a few minutes after submission. For enterprises eager to enter the era of network economy, choosing to register in international domain is undoubtedly a time-saving and labor-saving shortcut.

From the market environment, CNNIC has been the exclusive operator and manager of domestic domain names for several years, and there is no market competition. However, in the international registered market in China, there are many domestic top-level agents and second-level agents, and the competition is fierce. For their own development, in order to have greater competitive advantage, various agents compete to take active measures and flexible means, constantly adjust their business strategies according to the actual needs of enterprise users and individual users, or promote various promotional activities nationwide, or play service cards, or surprise in price, in order to win more users and market share.

Judging from the market price, the domestic domain name registration price has been basically stable in 300 yuan every year in the past two years, with little change. However, in the international field, due to the continuous reduction of the total registration cost and the intensification of market competition, the registration price has dropped again and again, reaching a surprising level. From the beginning of several thousand yuan, until the recent tens of yuan a year as the representative of the new network. At the same time, various supporting services are constantly being renovated, which has benefited users a lot. In the eyes of many small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals who are not strong in financial strength but occupy a dominant position in the market, it is obviously extremely affordable and practical to register a international domain.

So how does China Internet Information Center (CNNIC), as the national Internet information center, manage and run the national top-level domain name CN? Facing the aggressive trend of foreign domain names, how does CNNIC respond? Will CNNIC enhance its competitive advantage with foreign domain names by lowering the price? In this regard, CNNIC's answer is: CNNIC will meet the challenge of foreign domain names with high-quality services, rather than a simple price war. On the one hand, CNNIC has no right to directly modify the charging standard of CN domain name, on the other hand, price is not the main factor affecting the choice of registered domain name. In May 2000, when CNNIC solicited opinions from the whole society on the revision of the Administrative Measures for Domain Name Registration, only two of the more than 100 feedbacks mentioned the price issue. Obviously, how much influence can the price difference of one or two hundred yuan a year have on the decision-making of a company or enterprise? Therefore, CNNIC believes that the main reason for this situation is that the current registration management system in China is too strict. For example, although there are 28.3 million netizens in Japan, the number of domain names in Japan is only 654.38+10,000 due to stricter registration policies than in China. In the UK with19.5 million netizens, the number of domain names registered in the UK has reached 265,438+10,000 in August due to its relaxed registration policy.

There is an urgent need to revise the management measures. To this end, the Ministry of Information Industry entrusted CNNIC to carry out the revision and investigation of the current domain name registration management measures in the first half of this year. The main points of the suggestions made by CNNIC Working Committee and CNNIC to the Ministry of Information Industry include: relaxing the restrictions on domain name naming and opening up domain name resources; Simplify the registration procedure and improve the efficiency of domain name registration; Open personal domain names in an appropriate form and develop domain name resources; Establish a domain name dispute resolution mechanism to prevent malicious registration; Reduce costs and encourage individuals and organizations to surf the Internet. At present, the Ministry of Information Industry is actively revising the domain name management measures, and relevant regulations are expected to be promulgated at the end of this year and early next year.

To reduce domain name fees, CNNIC suggested that in order to cooperate with the opening of personal domain names, domain name fees can be divided into two categories, which treat individuals and institutions differently and give individuals more favorable prices to encourage individuals to surf the Internet and use the Internet. Of course, after all, the number of CN domain names is only a little more than 65,438+10,000, and the price reduction is not as good as that of 20 million foreign domain names. However, in order to truly benefit the vast number of netizens, CNNIC also suggested that foreign domain name registration systems should be used for reference, and domain name registration agencies should be divided into domain name system administrators and domain name registration service providers. Domain name system administrators collect domain name fees from domain name registration agencies for maintaining domain name databases and conducting related research, and the charging standards shall be stipulated by the state. Domain name registrars charge domain name fees to end users, and the fees are determined by service providers according to their market competition strategies, so as to benefit end users.

First-class service is inseparable from first-class hardware support. With the increase of business volume, CNNIC began to invest heavily in infrastructure construction. In June 2000, CNNIC invested more than 3 million yuan to build a call center and opened 800 telephones, and CNNIC paid for the service consultation telephones dialed by users. The system will gradually open telephone, fax, e-mail, text negotiation, internet phone, web page sharing and other service functions to provide first-class customer service for the vast number of Internet users. At present, CNNIC accesses more than 1000 800 consultation telephones every day. In the second half of this year, CNNIC plans to invest more than 8 million yuan to improve the equipment and software system of CN domain name registration service, with a view to reaching the international level in hardware construction. In the case of improvement in all aspects, the situation of registering domain names under CN may be improved.

3. Watch and use the net

The network economy has risen rapidly, but compared with developed countries, there is still a big gap in China. The proportion of netizens in the total population of China is low, the use efficiency of the network is not high, and various functions of the network have not yet been developed. Internet surfers mostly "watch the net" rather than "use the net", which is an obvious gap.

At present, domestic network operators have designed a large number of web pages, providing a large number of news, information, pictures, materials and so on. Show it to netizens. Watching the internet is also a function of the network, and surfers can get some useful information. However, at present, many domestic web pages upload news information of various newspapers and magazines to each other, and their original information is not much, and the timeliness is not fast.

The biggest role of the network lies in "using the network". The aging of the network can enable us to deal with all kinds of work, study and life affairs in modern society efficiently. In developed countries, e-commerce, online shopping, online financial management, distance education, telemedicine and so on. , which provides great convenience for people. But in China, many functions of "using the Internet" have not been developed. The function of the network can meet many new needs of people. For example, at present, due to the expansion of people's work, career and life activities, the phenomenon of separation between people and households is increasing. After going out, some people need to mobilize the funds in their accounts for their own use, and the online financial management function can help them use the funds in the network scheduling account. But at present, this function of the network has not been developed in China.

The Ministry of Industry and Resources of Korea announced that it had recently commissioned the Korea Electronic Commerce Promotion Agency to conduct a statistical survey on 1000 enterprises, focusing on stock exchanges and Nasdaq-listed companies. The survey shows that the e-commerce market in Korea is expected to reach 29.34 trillion won in 20001year, and the market scale in 2000 is 65,438+07.42 trillion won.

The Korea Ministry of Industry and Resources predicts that the e-commerce market will exceed 187 trillion won in 2005. From the perspective of transaction objects, the B2B e-commerce market will reach 8.10.8 trillion won, accounting for 46.9% of the total; The market size of B2C e-commerce will reach 3.02 trillion won, accounting for17.3% of the total; The B2B e-commerce market will reach 200 billion won, accounting for 1.2% of the total. [3]

South Korea also uses the Internet and other high-tech management tools to improve the efficiency of the construction industry and put an end to corruption.

Two major construction quality accidents in South Korea in the mid-1990s still plague the Korean construction industry. In 2000, the income of construction industry in Korea only accounted for 8.2% of the gross national product, which was much lower than 1 1.6% before the Asian financial crisis in 1996. The construction industry needs new stimulus to activate, and at the same time, it needs to take new measures to improve work efficiency, put an end to engineering corruption and avoid the recurrence of tragedies. Korean companies thought of using the Internet to solve this problem.

Korean construction industry has adopted the network project management system. This is a system named Prima (Project Resources and Information Management Provided by Internet Application Services) developed by Samsung Company of South Korea. Prima system can manage the flow of building materials from suppliers to construction sites; Manage human resources and so on. The project manager only needs to input the demand, and the system can automatically calculate the actual quantity of materials needed and the time required for supply. The system can also let construction managers know how many workers are needed in a certain period of time, and help managers to allocate labor reasonably.

This system also makes it difficult for those who want to make a fortune in the project, because the transaction between suppliers and construction management personnel is completely transparent, and all those involved in the project can see the order contract of engineering materials and the labor contract of construction personnel.

Jung Kyung Hee, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Construction and Communications of South Korea, said, "In the long run, strengthening the power of the Internet is an important way to enhance the competitiveness of the Korean construction industry." [4]

Two years ago, this system was first used in the construction of a large-scale comprehensive building-"Castle Palace". According to Samsung's data, in the construction of this project, the system saved 4 billion won (US$ 3 million) for the project, accounting for 0.8% of the total project investment. At the same time, the construction period was advanced by 5 months.

When the first resident moved into the castle palace in 2003, he would be completely in an online world. 3G wireless network system enables them to control air conditioners through their mobile phones; Telemedicine monitors in the lobby of the building allow them to detect blood pressure and other important physical indicators. The test results will be transmitted to the hospital through the broadband network system of the building.

How is this system applied in this project? In the database of Prima system, all materials, from cement to steel to various pipelines, have their own codes. The engineering manager sends the order details directly to the supplier through Prima system. Both the supplier and the transportation company know when to deliver the goods, and the engineering manager also knows when these materials need to be in place. Hwang, a system developer, said, "With this system, we no longer have to worry about inventory problems and overtime."

Prima system is also used to monitor the situation of more than 2,000 construction workers working in castles and palaces. Because a project often has multiple construction teams stationed, it is inconvenient for construction personnel to carry out overall management. Prima system provides each worker with an ID card with a bar code, and their corresponding information is stored in the database. For example, if a worker is injured at the construction site, the project manager can quickly identify his identity and current work, and quickly notify the medical staff to arrange the adjustment of the construction team. In this way, the project leader can be very clear about the number of workers and various situations on his site, and know how much work remains to be done and how many workers are needed.