With China's deepening international cooperation and improvements in the Internet, experts who participated in the conference "China 2.0: The Rise of a Digital Superpower" generally believe China's Internet economy is in ascendance and has great prospects for development.

They also think the Internet economy will become the driving force of economic growth.

When recalling the development of China's Internet in 1993, Xu Rongsheng, scientist and one of the explorers of China's Internet applications, said the introduction of the Internet seemed to be an "information explosion." Two years later, the public network service was opened in Beijing.

During the conference, which is run by the Stanford Project and Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) and Stanford University, Xu held a long-distance video conversation with Royce Cottrell, his partner many years ago and a scientist with Stanford University.

At the beginning of 2011, the number of Chinese Internet users will more than double that of the United States. Cottrell said during the conversation that he felt surprised and excited at the rapid development of China's Internet.

Xu said that Internet as a large industry saw a process of gradual development, setbacks and re-development. Many Internet companies closed down in a difficult period.

But now, China's Internet industry is rising, as the name of the conference implies. The integration of telecom, radio, TV and the Internet will make the prospects of Internet applications broader.

Baidu, Tencent and some other Chinese Internet firms now lead the world Internet industry, which shows they have strong competitiveness and financial support.

In terms of whether China is a digital superpower, Xu said that it is in terms of the number of Chinese Internet users. From the standpoint of innovation and management, it is not entirely because there are many things that need to be done. He also pointed out that network security is an important issue when talking about the challenges of the Internet economy.

With an increasingly wide rage of applications, Internet will develop toward more specialization in different directions, Ding Jian, Managing Director of GSR Ventures, told the conference.

Experts present at the conference all believe the Internet industry will have huge potential due to the wide use.

Youku CEO and President Gu Yongqiang said with the development of online video, Internet media and traditional media will find many cooperation opportunities from competition.

Internet industry will make contributions to create jobs and expand economy, according to Dake Clark, President of BDA (China) Limites. He also said media Internet economy will reduce the threshold and cost of business operations and bring more flexibility and convenience to people's life and work.

(People's Daily Online, October 20, 20`10)