06 August 2008

What Happens When China Lifts Internet Restrictions: A Surge in Visits

Since Chinese authorities lifted censorship of our VOANews.com website, there has been what VOA Internet Director Michael Messinger terms a "significant increase" in traffic originating inside China.

What an understatement!

For the entire site during the period July 1 - 5, before the lifting of Internet filters blocking VOANews.com, we recorded just under 6,000 visits from China.

In the first five days of August, after China lifted the filters on August 1st, we recorded 155,520 visits --- an increase of 2,502%.

For our Mandarin site, the comparable figures are: July 1-5: 1,535 visits; August 1-5: 138,089 visits --- an increase of 8,896%.

And sometimes we hear people are no longer interested in the news?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

as a nearly 30 years old voa fan listner, i, a doctor, who have being studied english to a quite level, strongly recommend to recover the 15.29 mhz service to east asia. thanks god!

Anonymous said...

By lifting its restriction on the internet, Chinese internet users will definitly feel happy, and I hope the lift will last beyond the Olympics.

Samuel Ajuong

Anonymous said...

the 15.29mhz service to northern china has been ceaced for more than 2 years. that changed my life a lot. as a english learner of nearly 30 yrs,i strongly suggest to recover the radio broadcasting at 23 o'clock GMT.
SINCERE
THANKS

Anonymous said...

voa has changed my daily life. I hope chinese goverment can keep voa going after olympic. it's good to our youngers.and I hope voa can offer some other ways to get more people be able to surf your content.