"The world IT industry is recovering gradually in 2002, and China's IT and network industries are also overcoming the most difficult time," said Gao Zailang, board chairman of eNet.com which reported breaking even in the first two months this year and expects by year's end to produce an income twice that of its expenditures.
Wang Ran, the CEO of China Ecapital Corporation, said it was too early to say whether China's IT industry as a whole has recovered, but he noted that the success of some websites such as ctrip.com and joyo.com "symbolize advisable models of a new economy.'"
Wang said there are some rules for a website's making a profit. The first is that only the "number one" in the field can survive. For example, 51job.com is the biggest website for job searches and the ctrip.com is the biggest website serving business trips and the hotel business in China, a business that once even surpassed China International Travel Service. Ctrip.com set up branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and HK and attracted 2 million members in just two years. The second is successful penetration into traditional industries. For example, there are few hotels that have never cooperated with or heard of ctrip.com.
But Wang also said that it is still too early to say if the IT industry has arrived in a second golden era after some websites have become profitable. People also need to judge whether the profit is based on enough market share and brighter prospects. It is an excessive wish at present to talk about profits, as websites making profit are still few.
Gao Zailang said it is obvious that not all websites can reach the goal of making profits at the same time, according to an analysis. Both 51job.com and ctrip.com have combined with traditional businesses and have been operating in a down-to-earth manner. He added that some special upstanding e-business companies may gain profits and that some basic information platform builders, such as 3721.com and ce.net.cn, also have opportunities. The portals will not be leading in gaining profits. And everybody understands that other than getting down to basics, working hard and combining with traditional business, there are no shortcuts.
(Wang Junguang for 北京青年报 [Beijing Youth Daily], translated by Feng Yikun for china.org.cn, April 18, 2002)
