College students watched the online broadcast of the October 1 parade while exchanging instant messages with friends. The online broadcast recorded 500 million visits that day and the simultaneous viewers reached 2.62 million. This reflects the boom of new Internet based media. Another major branch of new media is the cell phone. China currently has 680 million cell phone users which include 155 million users who go online with their phones. Additionally, digital cable is widely spreading in cities. It’s becoming a new interactive way of communication. New Media are significantly impacting people’s lives and are becoming an important channel for citizens to speak their voices.
Source: Xinhua, October 9, 2009.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2009-10/09/content_12200850.htm