CHINA has the world's largest number of microbloggers, according to the latest report on the country's new media development.

The annual report, published by the Social Sciences Academic Press, quoted the China Internet Network Information Center as saying that about 274 million Chinese people had microblog accounts as of June this year.

BAIDU, China's largest search engine provider, will invest about 10 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) to build cloud computing centers to attract web-based software developers as it seeks to offer more services to users.

Baidu will also allow application developers to access freely its cloud computing capabilities, the firm said yesterday. It hopes this move may help attract more smartphone users by providing them with a wider range of web-based services.

THE first of the post-1990s, web-savvy generation - those "irresponsible kids" born in 1990 - are entering the workplace and they're being closely watched to see how they adjust to the real world. Li Anlan reports.

Graduation season concludes with a huge sigh of relief: There are memories of funny cap-and-gown photos, going on trips with friends, relaxing after years of pressure. For some, this summer also marks a huge transition in life - the beginning of a professional career.

THE user base of mobile Internet has surpassed that of personal computer users for the first time in China, the world's No. 1 dot-com market by Internet population, a national-level Internet research organization said yesterday.

By the end of June, the number of China's netizens is said to have reached 538 million with a penetration rate of 39.3 percent, 1.6 percentage points more compared to the level at the end of last year, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

The country's broadcasting and Internet watchdogs will step up their management of online programs, including website-produced shows and micro films, to ensure healthy development of the Web environment.

Good Web series and micro films can help develop a positive Web culture, and the country encourages more productions that are in good taste, according to an announcement jointly released by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the State Internet Information Office on Monday.

AROUND 50 employees of a group-buying website who were laid off on Friday are meeting with bosses today to try to agree compensation.

Management at Gaopeng, a joint-venture in China with Groupon, informed around 100 of its Shanghai workforce of between 300 and 400 that they had lost their jobs.

SINA.COM, operator of China's most popular microblogging platform Weibo.com, plans to make money from the service as early as the first half of 2012 and will continue investing in the microblogging service to cement its market position.

Sina, which also operates one of the leading Chinese web portals, said profit plunged 60 percent in the second quarter from a year ago to US$10 million as it spent heavily to promote the microblogging service and upgraded products to retain more users.

When Liu Shuwei wrote a post on her micro blog to help a remote village sell walnuts and raise money to build a road before they're harvested in October, she didn't expect all the produce to be snapped up within one month.

Simply by registering on a beauty forum, Zhao Minrui received some of L'Oréal 's latest sunscreen lotion.

It was the third time she had received a free sample this year, either for sharing her experiences of skincare or participating in online bidding.

Web giant is smarting over spinoff of Alibaba Group's payment division

More Internet companies in China are turning to private share placements for funding that they could previously raise only from initial public offerings in overseas stock markets, Bao Fan, chief executive officer of China Renaissance Partners, said.

"We generally believe that the private market is already an alternative to the IPO market," Bao said in an interview in Beijing on Thursday, where China Renaissance is based. "These days, there is a lot of liquidity in the private market."

Bao, a former banker at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG, helped manage the $1.5 billion private placement this year by Chinese online retailer 360Buy.com, the biggest such transaction in the world's largest Internet market by users.

Baidu Inc, China's largest search engine by market share, is taking on Tencent Holdings Ltd and Sina Corp in a scramble to gather application developers worldwide by fully opening its platform and offering a sizeable fund package.

The search engine giant said on Wednesday that its application platform offers a low entry barrier, steady revenue and copyright protection for various developers, whether they are companies or individuals.

The development of mobile internet will explode when some smartphones are available at prices less than 1,000 yuan, Kai-Fu Lee, the chairman and CEO of Innovation Works, said in a speech Friday at the Iresearch Annual Forum in Beijing.

Lee expects to see smartphones at prices lower than 1,000 yuan in the next few months.

Investigations of a copyright fight between more than 40 Chinese writers and Baidu, China's largest search engine, are underway, an official with China's copyright watchdog group said Thursday.

Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of the National Copyright Administration, said during a press conference that the search engine showed a "proactive" attitude during a meeting between its senior managers and copyright authorities.