Next big thing? (1)
In the short “history” of China internet development, we can easily point out several gradations.
The first is the sites of ISP (Internet Service Provider). At that time the internet is not widely used as today. Most of people had just heard of it but had no actual experiences. And because of the large costs, the internet was regarded as the mystical tool of some experts. Even how to connect to the net (by modem dialing) was unknown to the public. So when an employee set up the connection for you, usually he also set the homepage of your browser (the Netscape navigator was the best one) to the ISP’s site. So for many friends include me, the first step to the cyberspace is from that site 
The Yin-Haiwei may be the most important one of them. It was so famous because of the sign near to the company by a road: “You are 1500m away from information highway!” But several days ago the news said the YHW was sold at a very low price.
(ps: I can’t find a valid url for IHW, but someone make this site, maybe for just remember.)
The second is the provider of some free services. The expense of surfing was not totally unacceptable but still very high. So we were so glad to find some free services, like email webspace and so on. Some sites, most of which had a numerical domain name, appeared. I still remember every newspapers and magazines had some of this news. We compared the number of free-emails with each other. We registered every free services we can find even no need indeed Free service was the best method to making site well-known. But no one could support and continue to be free for ever. How about these sites today? Some are still alive but not as famous as they were, like 163.net and 263.net. Some have disappeared with the wind, like 371.net and 188.net.
(To be continued…)
