With the effective blocking of You Tube, Facebook and Twitter, Beijing is succeeding in splitting the Chinese internet away from the global system. A few years ago China’s “Great Firewall” was considered anachronistic and laughably outdated. But instead of crumbling into cyberdust, the digital version of the Great Wall of China has become broader, higher – and more comprehensive.
What are the implications of a fractured internet that excludes not only individual sites but entire communication platforms? It is inconvenient for a few people at the moment – but how significant …

Netpop Research reports the sheer size of China’s Internet population—numbering 304 million today and projected to grow to over 500 million by 2015—forces them to stay in the game. It estimates that up to 92% of Chinese netizens use social media, meanwhile, only 76% of US netizens do the same.
Recent research from Netpop examines the social networking environment in China and finds that 92% of the 243 million broadband consumers in China (224 million) ages 13+ contribute to social media. This is compared with only 76% of the American broadband population.
Additional findings …