Chinese 
will be the Internet’s number one language according to TechEye. English was the founding language of the web but the growing number of Chinese online is changing the web’s dominant language to Chinese, a report by Nextweb has suggested. The China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC) reports the number of Chinese online had reached 457 million by the end of 2010. China Tech News points out that since 2007 China has added 320 million Internet users, slightly more than the entire population of the United States (308 million).
China Tech News also reports that the number of mobile Internet users logging in via smartphones or other mobile devices in China reached 303 million in 2010. Pretty impressive considering the U.S. only has 230 million people with Internet access.
It seems that the Chinese are trying to capitalize on this. Recently the PRC’s General Administration of Press and Publication announced (Google translation) a ban on that the mixing of foreign words in Chinese language newspapers, magazines and web sites without an accompanying Chinese language translation. The ban includes the names of people and places, acronyms, abbreviations and common phrases, all of which have become increasingly common in China over recent years.
What do you think?
Is China creating a Great Wall of communications for the rest of the world?
Will Chinese be the lingua franca of business in the for the rest of the 21st century?
