真实 独立 权威
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
1
真实 独立 权威
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
2