Official media court investors in the quest for internet influence

The websites of the mainland's three main official media - People's Daily, Xinhua and China Central Television - are accelerating on the road to the stock market in an effort to better compete with commercial news portals.

People.com.cn, the website of the Communist Party's People's Daily, plans to lead the way and launch its A-share initial public offering early this year, China Daily has reported.

But academics say the official news websites will have a hard time reversing their declining market share. Alexa.com, the internet traffic tracker, says People.com.cn ranks just 46th on the mainland and Xinhuanet.com 33rd, far behind Sina.com, ranked fourth, and Sohu.com seventh. The three most popular websites on the mainland are search engine Baidu, internet portal QQ.com and eBay clone Taobao, in that order.

With the emergence of internet services including microblog platforms and social network sites, online opinions have played a key role in shaping public debate on controversial incidents on the mainland.

Yang Binyan , a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Journalism and Communication, said the government wanted to increase the influence of official websites, particularly during emergencies, when commercial websites, forums and bulletin boards were major sources of information and platforms for discussion.

'It is a trend that no one can avoid in the era of media convergence,' Yang said. 'If official news sites don't do that they'll lose out in swaying public opinions.'