Youku.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Victor Koo says he's tired of being asked whether his company, China's biggest online-video provider, is the nation's version of YouTube or Hulu. It's both and better, he says。

　　中国最大的在线视频网站优酷网首席执行官古永锵表示，他对于经常被问及他的公司是否是中国版的YouTube或者Hulu感到十分厌烦。她说，优酷网是它们两者的结合，并且更优秀。

　　Koo is among dot-com executives gathering in Beijing today and tomorrow to sell the idea that Chinese online services from Youku to Tencent Holdings's QQ are catching up to the world and western companies will soon turn to China for innovation. Their edge in detecting trends: an Internet population of 420 million, more than the number of people in the US and Germany。

　　今明两天，古永锵将与众多互联网公司高管齐聚北京，推广这样一种理念，即像优酷和腾讯QQ这样的中国互联网服务正在逐渐赶上世界的步伐，西方企业很快将来到中国寻求技术创新。它们在发现流行趋势方面的优势是：中国拥有4.2亿网民，比美国和德国的人口总和都要多。

　　"The Internet's center of gravity is shifting toward China," said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China in Beijing, a technology consultant. "China has almost double the number of US Internet subscribers. That concentration matters."

　　博达克咨询有限公司董事长邓肯-克拉克说：“互联网的中心正在逐渐向中国转移。中国的网民数量几乎是美国的两倍。这种网民密集度意义重大。”

　　Some investors may already be ahead of the curve. Tencent and Baidu are larger than EBay Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. by market value. Alibaba Group Holding's Alibaba.com unit is also among the 10 biggest Internet companies globally by market capitalization。

　　一些投资者有可能早在这种趋势出现前就已经采取了行动。腾讯与百度的市值比亿贝和雅虎还高。阿里巴巴网站也是全球范围内市场资本额最高的10家互联网企业之一。

　　Tencent expanded its QQ online-chat software to offer additional features that appeal to youths, according to an Internet analyst. QQ controlled 77 percent of China's instant-messaging market as of December, compared with 4.2 percent for Microsoft's MSN, according to researcher Analysis International。

　　有分析师指出，腾讯在即时通讯软件QQ的基础上推出了许多吸引青少年的附加功能。市场调查公司易观国际的数据显示，截至去年12月，QQ在中国即时通讯市场中占有77%的份额，而微软公司的MSN只占4.2%。

　　Taobao.com, China's biggest online-shopping site, overtook San Jose, California-based EBay within three years of its founding in 2003 by waiving commissions from transactions between its users. The approach by Taobao appealed more to China's cost-conscious Internet users, according to James Hawkins, managing director at DGM Asia, which buys advertising from Internet companies in China。

　　淘宝网自2003年成立后的三年内，就通过不收取用户间交易提成的做法超越了总部位于加利福尼亚州的亿贝公司。DGM公司亚洲区总经理詹姆斯-霍金斯说，淘宝网的做法更能吸引极为注重节省成本的中国网民。DGM公司主要经营中国互联网企业的广告业务。

　　While the number of so-called "netizens" trumps those of any other country, Chinese Internet companies have yet to become household names, according to BDA's Clark. "Tencent is among the largest Internet companies in the world but most people outside of China haven't even heard of it," said Clark. China also trails the US in revenue. In addition, China lags behind the US in terms of educational and social conditions to foster innovation, said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, a Beijing-based market research firm. Still, its Internet population guarantees China will impact the Web's future, he said。

　　克拉克说，尽管中国的网民数量比其他任何国家都要多，中国互联网企业却未能在世界其他地方家喻户晓。他说：“腾讯公司是世界上最大的互联网公司之一，但中国以外的大多数人都未曾对它有所耳闻。”中国企业在收入方面也落后于美国企业。此外，总部位于北京的市场调研公司迈博瑞咨询有限公司的总经理马克-特纳金指出，中国在培养创新能力的教育和社会条件方面落后于美国。但他表示，庞大的网民数量决定了，中国必将影响互联网的未来。