When China's largest web portal, Sina.com, recently announced it
would launch a podcasting service, people started wondering whether
podcasts will soon become more popular than blogs?
But Beijing Daily Messenger reports that a number of
insiders claim podcasting won't develop as quickly as some people
expect.
They say making videos is much complicated than writing words
for the web, a skill almost everyone can master.
But podcasting has already been around for two or three years in
China.
Well before Sina made its decision, a number of smaller websites
provided podcasting services, like tudou.com, aeeboo.com.
These websites have been attracting more and more netizens, but
the paper says podcasting in China is still in its early days,
compared to the huge popularity of overseas podcasting sites.
Critics of China's podcasting sites say most of the works they
display aren't original, but imported from foreign websites.
They also warn that the new medium will bring a host of
problems. As well as having the potential for sparking copyright
disputes, they may host negative, aggressive or pornographic
content.
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(CRI December 25, 2006)