China aims to help local Internet firms cross into the globa
Source: Michael Kan
China seeks to help the country's Internet firms gain a bigger foothold in the international market, and is preparing to pour more state funds into its emerging tech sector, according to one of its top leaders.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made the statement in his opening address to the country's annual parliamentary session on Thursday. He added that China is establishing an "Internet Plus" plan to promote its mobile Internet, cloud computing, and e-commerce sectors, as part of a push to support the country's emerging industries.
"The country has already established a 40 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion) emerging industry innovation investment fund, and more capital will be brought in and integrated," he said.
China is home to some of the biggest Internet firms in the world, including e-commerce giant Alibaba, search provider Baidu, and messaging and gaming company Tencent.
None of these firms have the same international presence as Google or Facebook, but that doesn't mean they aren't trying.
On Wednesday, Alibaba announced it had opened a data center in Silicon Valley, targeting the U.S. cloud computing market.
Tencent, on the other hand, has been trying to popularize its messaging app WeChat in emerging markets including Southeast Asia.
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