Chinese Web on Web Trend Map 2008

We wrote about “Chinese Web on Web Trend 2007” last year. Three points were commented: Chinese Internet is special; Chinese Internet was not web2.0; The world has not understood China web, still.

2007 is gone, and it is time to predict the new web trend in 2008. Last weekend, Information Architects released the beta version of Web Trend Map 2008. It is a far more complex map than the one of 2007, so let’s review the three points:

Will Chinese Internet be special still?

Apparently it is a Yes. Even two branches (Chinese Line) of Chinese sites were drew on the map, joined at Baidu. But can we have one mapped on the Innovation Line? Being special sounds perfect, but always isolating ourselves with the global market is no good.

Will Chinese Internet be evolved to web2.0 in 2008?

The answer seems a Yes. Check the sites listed on the map. It has the Chinese portals (Sina, Netease, Sohu), most popular video sharing sites (Tudou, Youku, 6.cn, 56), P2P download (Xunlei), auction site (Taobao), social networking site (Mop) and of course QQ and Baidu.

Has the world understood China Web yet?

Hmm… I am not very sure. The Chinese sites listed on the new map make much more sense than the one of 2007, more stories have been discovered: China has several video-sharing sites generating massive traffic daily; Taobao has beat the Ebay in China and its owner Alibaba is now No.1 B2B e-commerce portal; Mop is one of most popular social networks originated from a BBS; China probably leads the P2P technology. Are these all about China web? The mobile web market and some other web2.0 sites are still not mentioned. And, how many “some other web2.0 sites” can we recommended to the map, which is the embarrassing question I do not know the answer, either.

Anyhow, the map is only for fun, but we need your serious thoughts. The html version can be viewed here and the complete version is in PDF.