Published : 08/07/2024

On July 8, 1998, the term "netizen" (網民) was officially born in China.

On that day, the China National Committee for Terminology in Science and Technology released the second batch of 56 information technology terms, and the Chinese term for "Internet users" was defined as "Netizen".

As early as the beginning of the 1980s, China began to build the Internet.

On April 20, 1994, with a 64K international line connecting to the Internet through the American Sprint company from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Computer Network Centre, China achieved full functional connection with the Internet.

From then on, China officially became the 77th country in the world to truly have a fully functional Internet.

However, at that time, only a few people could access the Internet.

Not only was the network speed quite low, at 56K per second, but the Internet had to be dialled in through a telephone line. Not to mention that it was impossible to make phone calls during using the Internet, and any incoming call would immediately disconnect the Internet.

With rapid technological development, China today has over 1 billion netizens, and an Internet penetration rate has reached 73.0%.

Through electronic interaction, China has grown into a massive digital world where it has the highest number of netizens and the widest connected areas.