Word: shanda
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...Behind the wild success of Ghost Blows Out the Light is a booming internet-novel industry that is largely unique to China because of the greater freedom from censorship enjoyed online by writers and readers. Shanda Literature, which controls over 90% of China's online-reading market, rakes in an estimated revenue of 100 million yuan ($15 million) per year. Running three popular online-novel websites, Shanda boasts a total readership of 25 million and is growing at 10 million per year, according the company. "The Chinese people need a platform to express their creativity," said Hou Xiaoqiang, founding...
...soft-spoken 34-year-old, Hou studied Chinese literature while at university in Beijing and worked as an editor at Sina.com, a major Chinese Web portal, for seven years before starting Shanda in 2005. He describes the company - in which budding writers self-publish their work without having to be vetted by editors - as not only a profitable business, but also an extension of his own literary aspirations. "I believe everyone can be a writer," he says. "Especially now, when the Internet really has become part of our lives...
...China's richest men, worth more than $1 billion, with a staff of more than 1,000 and building an interactive-media empire that soon could turn him into a local Rupert Murdoch. Even in the turbo-charged world of Chinese business, Chen's firm, Shanda Networking, has posted stunning growth, expanding 20% each quarter, with $73 million in net income last year. "China has a business history of not much more than 20 years," says Chen. "We live in a completely different world from our parents, where you can achieve success very quickly...
...Shanda first courted success with a concept that's bigger in Asia than in the U.S.: online games, a $370 million industry in China in which players interact with each other via the Internet in a virtual world of dragons, maidens and sword fights. Chen has bought majority stakes in Sina, the country's largest portal, and a host of other online gaming companies. Next up, Shanda, in collaboration with Intel, hopes to introduce a set-top box that will enable users to access everything from news, music and movies to games and online auction sites. Currently, only 20 million...
...Shanda Trimble won't have to resort to the courts. Next year she'll be attending the Alliance School, founded to create a safe atmosphere for students who feel unwelcome in traditional settings. Says co-founder Tina Owen, an English teacher: "A lot of adults think 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.' But these students seemed to be hurting really bad." --Reported by Elizabeth Coady/ Chicago, Avery Holton/Austin, Sora Song/New York and Sonja Steptoe/Los Angeles