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The cover of Fifteen Years of Ferment: China’s Internet, 1995–2009

Fifteen Years of Ferment: China’s Internet, 1995–2009

Lin Jun

A history of China's internet from its first commercial connections to the mobile opening of 2009, tracing how founders, infrastructure, capital, and users shaped its companies.

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17 parts, about 38 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Follows the people who built China's early internet access, portals and online services through the choices that opened or constrained them
  • Explains how cash shortages, telecom rules and payment channels shaped rival paths in search, commerce, games and social services
  • Looks toward a mobile market still dependent on operators, keeping its future open from the author's vantage point

Who it is for

  • Readers tracing how China's internet companies first took shape
  • Founders studying how finance and infrastructure affected product choices
  • Technology historians interested in contemporary memories and disputed claims

What the summary covers

  1. The opening and the network beneath it3 min
  2. Access businesses meet their limits1 min
  3. Experimenting with a portal2 min
  4. From access to online media2 min
  5. Free users, costly networks3 min
  6. The 1999 rush and its uncertain bargains3 min
  7. The 2000 market boom2 min
  8. Survival after the portal crash2 min
  9. Finding customers beyond the portals3 min
  10. Commerce paths around the SARS shock2 min
  11. Games, capital and concentrated risk3 min
  12. Tencent's route from messages to virtual goods3 min
  13. Search, local markets, and software clients2 min
  14. Advertising networks and the 2007 listing window2 min
  15. Social networks and paid writing3 min
  16. A mobile opening, as seen in 20091 min
  17. Why I wrote this history1 min

Recommended by

  • Hu QihengFormer president of the Internet Society of China
  • Kai Fu LeeFounder of Sinovation Ventures and former Google China president
  • Edward TianCo founder of AsiaInfo and chairman of CBC Capital
  • Lei JunFounder and chief executive of Xiaomi
  • Luo FeiChairman of Shenzhen Songhe Capital
  • Steve HarmonVenture capitalist and author of Zero Gravity

About the author

  • Lin JunTechnology journalist and former editor in chief of Tianji.com
    • 1997年加入《电脑报》编辑部，年底负责其网络版。
    • 曾任天极网总编辑，后来创办科技媒体雷锋网。
    • 长期梳理并写作中国互联网史和高科技史。

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