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104 Jack Linchuan QiuTable 4.1Demographic comparison: Internet users vis-à-vis averageChineseAverage College 30 yearsincome education Male and under(US$) (%) (%) (%)October 1997 116 – a 88 71July 1998 177 – a 93 76January 1999 152 70 86 79July 1999 183 85 85 78January 2000 221 84 79 78July 2000 211 86 75 78January 2001 176 89 70 75July 2001 146 63 61 68January 2002 158 60 60 68July 2002 133 58 61 70January 2003 134 57 59 72Figures foraverage Chinese(2000) 84 3.6 51 51a Data not available.Sources: CNNIC Survey Reports on China’s Internet Development (October 1997–January 2003);China National Bureau of Statistics, China Statistical Yearbook (2000)the rich coastal regions contain 21 percent of China’s land and 40 percent ofits population, they are home to more than 60 percent of Chinese Internet usersand more than 80 percent of “.cn” domain names (Qiu, 2002a:165–9). Mostdisproportionate concentration is found in the urban centers of Beijing,Shanghai, and Guangdong Province, which collectively have only 8 percent ofChina’s population, but account for 23 percent of users and more than half ofthe country’s domain names and World Wide Web sites as of January 2003(see figure 4.1). Although the concentration of users in the core region of thesethree urban centers has declined from its peak of 52 percent in 1997 to 20percent in 2003, the concentration of online content providers in the areasremains little changed. The pattern that more regional disparity correlates withmore sophisticated technology applies to the Internet as well as other communicationresources such as mass media, landline and cellular phone subscriptions.The regional discrepancy also is parallel to a deep urban–rural split:although 69 percent of China’s population is rural, 16 only 1 percent of ChineseInternet users work in “agriculture, forestry, husbandry, and fishery.” 17According to the CNNIC January 2003 report, “seeking information” and