Even before Google began threatening to shut down its search service in China, it was not fitting in.
Google and other major American Internet companies like Yahoo and eBay failed to gain significant traction in the Chinese market. And Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked by the government.
Instead, the hottest companies in the world's biggest Internet market have names like Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba -- fast-growing local firms that are making huge profits. Post-Google, China's Internet market could increasingly resemble a lucrative, walled-off bazaar, experts say. Those homegrown successes, however, could have trouble becoming global brands.
“If the Chinese government continues to favor domestic companies, those companies that reach critical mass could become phenomenally profitable,” said Gary Rieschel, founder of Qiming Ventures, an American venture capital firm with investments in China. “But it may be hard for those companies to become world class without outside competition.”
Chinese use computers at an Internet cafe in Fuyang in central China's Anhui province. — AP
Still, the success of Chinese companies here can be measured by the numbers.
Revenue at Tencent, a kind of Internet conglomerate, jumped more than 70 per cent last year, to about $1.8-billion U.S..
Baidu, a Google look-alike, has largely clobbered Google in China, despite giving up some ground in recent years. And Taobao.com, China's huge e-commerce site, handled nearly $30-billion in transactions last year.
The story behind the success of these companies is a simple one, some analysts say. The young people who dominate Web use in China are not just searching for information; they're searching for a lifestyle. They are passionate about downloading music, playing online games and engaging in social networking.
“Sixty percent of the Internet users here are under the age of 30,” said Richard Ji, an Internet analyst at Morgan Stanley. “In the U.S., it's the other way around. And in the U.S. it's about information. But in China, the No. 1 priority is entertainment.”
Experts say American companies have largely failed here because they don't have local expertise, are too slow to adapt and don't know how to deal with the Chinese government.
“Internet companies in China have to work so closely with the government,” said Xiao Qiang, of the China Internet project at the University of California, Berkeley. “And that means the government's political agenda can become the company's business agenda.”
The need to censor Web sites, for example, can overwhelm smaller companies, Xiao said. “This becomes a growing business cost. So often, small companies don't develop.”
Sixty percent of the Internet users here are under the age of 30. In the U.S., it's the other way around. And in the U.S. it's about information. But in China, the No. 1 priority is entertainment. — Richard Ji, Internet analyst at Morgan Stanley
At this stage, analysts say the Web in China is less about innovation than about quickly delivering on the latest online trend.
“People here are quick to see trends, and to clone and innovate,” said William Bao Bean, a former Internet analyst who is now a partner at Softbank China & India Holdings. “If one company is doing well, other companies will quickly clone it and roll it out.”
No company is better at that than Tencent, which is based in the southern city of Shenzhen.
The company's biggest weapon is a popular instant messaging service called QQ. Its 500 million active users give the company an advantage when it introduces new products and offerings, like online games.
Tencent was founded in 1998 by a group of friends that included Ma Huateng, also known as Pony, who is now its 38-year-old billionaire chief executive. With Tencent commanding a stock market value of $37.2 billion, the only global Internet companies that are worth more are Google ($173.7-billion) and Amazon ($57.2-billion).
