Compare and contrast

Two reports today, one from China, one from India on the development of the Internet.

Highlights:

* India has approx. 45mn Internet users; only around 10mn are power users (for research and ecommerce)

* Online Advertising in India to grow at a CAGR of 50% from 2005 to 2010; $57 million for current fiscal year.

* China has 123 million users by the end of June this year

* The number of broad band users in China reached 77 million

* There are currently 788,000 websites in the country.

The China story in particular is brief and I will be reading the India report with interest. It's easy to sneer at the small numbers, but growth is clearly strong and, without the regulatory stranglehold of government which makes life in China so complex, there are clearly going to be great opportunities there.

Update: According to the China Web 2.0 Review, there are 17.5 million bloggers in China. That's more than the total population of the Netherlands.