How Beijing Has Managed to Move From Being a Copycat of the West to Being the Copycat

La Vanguardia

Lean Left

Factuality

Ownership

When China overcame the US in 2008 and became the first country in terms of Internet users, the technology sphere was not immutated. This was mainly due to two fundamental facts: first, the Internet penetration rate in China was only 23%, not even a third of the US; second, the use of the Internet was very consumer-centric, and all the main agents in the different sectors were imitators of Western business innovations. Baidu is the Chinese Googl…