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What’s Next for China’s Internet?
http://www.6xue.info May 16, 2006, BEIJING –China’s explosive growt h in tertiary education, bringing with it both opportunity and scandal, alerted the founders of 6xue.info to a need for an honest broker. U.S. college applicants benefit from an abundance of objective information about schools, and the two Americans in Beijing felt that Chinese students should have access to the same “third -party” information, so they formed a company to provide it. In March 2006, they started circulating surveys to Chinese students and graduates around the world, asking for their assessments of educational institutions. It was a matter of days before Chinese students around the world began to respond, and within six weeks, 6xue.info had collected 14,000 surveys detailing Chinese students’ opinions of the schools they’ve attended. The results will be made available to students aspiring to go abroad. The respons e was a validation of China’s pent-up demand for objective information, but it surprised no one. “There is much confusion in the education market place among students. This undermines the credibility of the whole endeavor,” according to AmCham President Charles Martin. “The American Chamber of Commerce-China believes transparent and science-based based rating systems such as 6xue.info are badly needed in China.” “Chinese students have money and a thirst for knowledge,” said Tom Melcher, co-founder of 6xue.info, “but what they lack is trustworthy and objective information. That so many Chinese around the world would take our survey just to help the next generation demonstrates that they feel they would have benefited from the same information. ” 6xue.info is China’s first private “third party” rating company, serving cons umers with information on suppliers that is not biased by commercial interest. The third party or “honest broker” system in commerce, and particularly e-commerce, began in China with the formation of certific ate authorities, credit bureaus, and the publication of an e -signature law. But third-party institutions are only just getting started. “When 6x ue.info opens the survey data to the public on May 16, they will inaugurate a new stage in China’s e-commerce development,” said a spokesman for the China Electronic Commerce Association. “That new stage will bring China beyond the mass-market, news-orient ed portals that have characterized the landscape for a decade and instead foster the development of third party services to stand between buyer and seller, providing ratings, surveys, reviews, and testing results.” The growth of private, “third-party” evaluation organizations is explicitly encouraged by the State Council in its 2005 “Opinions Regarding Accelerating the Development of E-Commerce” [Doc. 2]. “Chinese buyers demand honesty and transparency from sellers, and they demand that products meet their requirements,” said Anne Stevenson-Yang, co-founder of 6xue.info. “Confidence that these requirements will be met is built through third-party organizations that provide a range of services, from testing to conformity assessment, ratings, and surveys. ” Formerly, all such activities were conducted by government organizations. But reform and opening have driven a demand for many layers of technical and commercial standards, some voluntary but still very important to consumers whose complexity has outstripped the ability of
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government agencies to review and authorize them. As a result, non-governmental organizations and private companies are beginning to be established to make the commercial environment in China more transparent and suppliers more accountable. "Information exchange is extremely beneficial to consumers, and the internet has become the most efficient means for this in America," said Bob Poole, China Director of the US-China Business Council. "It is a positive step when the end users can communicat e with one another, and become more informed consumers. It is particularly gratifying to see this in the area of educational exchanges between China and the US."
The need in education
China has seen the most dramatic expansion of educational opportunity in history. Fifteen years ago, about 1.5% of Chinese bet ween 18 -22 were in school; now it’s almost 20%. At least 150,000 Chinese students are going overseas every year for education, and domestic MBA programs have graduated more than 85,000 students. Private universities have been formed all over the country, and publicly supported universities have for-profit divisions. This sort of explosion in the number and types of institutions greatly benefits the next generation but also creat es opportunities for confusion, unfair business practices, and even fraud. Since 2000, Chinese authorities have conducted periodic sweeps to crack down on illegal activities masquerading as educational exchanges. In many cases, agents or individuals have taken advantage of individuals trying to go abroad, agreeing to forge certificates and even colluding with smuggling groups to organize illegal immigration. Many more consumers are not subjected to fraud but are disappoint ed in the schools they get introduced to by agents. On arrival in the foreign count ries, they find that they are paying twice as much as local students and yet that the education they are receiving may be no better than what they could receive in China. This is because the Information available to students comes from schools seeking enrollment, services support ed by advertising from the school, or other partisan channels, making it hard for students to find reliable information. 6xue.info was established to answer that need by providing an open forum for students and graduates to share their experiences. 6xue.info is free to readers. It is supported by advertising but, to avoid any conflicts of interest, it does not accept money from organizations whose products or servic es are reviewed. This refusal to accept financial support from any company in the sector under review is the hallmark of an “honest broker” institution. The site, at www.6xue.info, publishes all its standards and its executives’ names and contact information, and it permits consumers to visit the premises to conduct their own audits. Pseudonyms are not permitted; all stories must have a byline for accountability. “Honesty and reliability are the foundations of our company, the qualities we would not compromise for any reason, including profit,” Stevenson -Yang said. “It’s the promise we make to our users.” ## Contact: Sun Qian, Vice President (010) 5155-7589 13910616999 sunqian@6xue.info
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