Eric Schmidt: The Net Will Split into Two Within 10 to 15 Years

[engine]

Eric Schmidt believes the Net will split into two, with Chinese-led and US-led versions within the next ten to fifteen years.

He also said that developers should create more services which are useful that are purely addictive.

[cnbc.com...]

[Leosghost]

Er typo there engine.. :)

He also said that developers should create more services which are useful that are purely addictive.

although it is probably what Eric meant to say.. ;)

What he is reported as saying in that article was..

At several points in the private discussion, Schmidt urged entrepreneurs to build products and services that are valuable and not merely addictive.

Wouldn't this have been so much better if he had said..
At several points in the private discussion, Schmidt urged entrepreneurs to build products and services that are not merely addictive, but valuable.

The difference is subtle..but important..

re the split into 2 ..
More likely the USA..and the rest of the world..the "European internet"*, in which I include Russia is large ( but with diverse languages ) ..The "Chinese internet" already interfaces with the Russian internet and the European internet, and the USA led internet...and then we have the Japanese sites and Indian sites and Arabic sites and... etc etc ..

What Eric means when he speaks of the USA led internet I think is the "English language" internet..forgetting that many in the USA do not have English as their first language..He might want to talk to the Google workers who work in the non English parts of the internet before being quite so binary** in his thinking and definitions..

* As opposed to the EU internet ( which does not exist as a "unit" )..
**Pun intended..

[glakes]

After dealing with Chinese scrapers, knockoffs of our products, etc., I would be just fine if China was separated from the global internet.

[justa]

It would be a tradgedy to see the web split. The whole point and benefit is that it’s one platform.

[lucy24]

And then there’s the North Korean internet ...

[iamlost]

I agree that the web is tearing from various stresses. However, as many stresses are caused by platforms wanting access elsewhere while restricting it themselves as by jurisdictions chasing control.

The major battles in the next 5 to 10 years that will determine the resulting web or webs will be between the platforms and the jurisdictions. Jurisdictional disputes will largely be driven by the disputes of their native web platforms and will be lumped into economic/trade agreements/disputes alongside autos and dairy. The rest of us are merely some degree of collateral damage along for the ride.

[TorontoBoy]

I have spent a significant amount of time on Baidu and the Chinese internet. Their eco system is completely separate to the West. Chinese citizens simply have no access to many Western web sites and this will not change.

I do let the more popular Chinese search engines scrape my sites, as I do Western and Russian search engines. Most of my Chinese-related stuff, written in bilingual English Chinese, does not make it to the Chinese search engines. I do check. They have different rules in China.

The cleaving has already begun.

[tangor]

China, all by itself, is billions of users, and not surprised they want to control their own "communication" services.

Would that be a loss to the rest of the world? Particularly in ecommerce? That's the real question.

g has already built a China-centric search engine. We're waiting to see if it will be implemented.