ADVERTISING: Online Revenue Soaring

Online advertising surged by 75% to 10.6 billion yuan ($1.48 billion) in 2007, according to a research firm, largely driven by a boom in search engine "keyword" advertising, which grew 108%.

Search engine advertising accounted for 27% of the market in terms of value, and is predicted to hit 30% in 2008. Online brand advertising jumped 65% to 4.86 billion yuan and is expected to reach 23.7 billion yuan by 2011.

Ads embedded in games, software, and video clips will also become a major driving force. China had 210 million Internet users at the end of 2007, the world's second largest online population.