Indians among top 10 browsers of China's leading portal

China's leading news portal is keen to have a Hindi version of its website for Indians, who are currently among its top 10 browsers, but high cost was a barrier, an official said.

"We know that Indians are among our ardent readers. However, we don't have plans now to have a Hindi version of our website due to huge expenses involved," deputy director of people.com.cn, Huang Qixiang, told visiting journalists in Beijing.

The portal, under People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party of China currently offers its content in Chinese, Arabic, English, French, Japanese, Russian and Spanish, acting as a bridge between China and people from around the world.

"If we can do it economically in the future, we will consider opening our website in Hindi language," Huang said while noting that most Indians knew English.

According to Brian Zhang, Editor of People's Daily Online, Indians were among the website's top 10 readers from around the world, which were topped by Chinese, Americans, French, British, Germans and Australians.

"Thanks to a decade's efforts, People's Daily Online has made itself one of the most authoritative, comprehensive and influential websites and a disseminator of information," he said.

With publication started in June 1948 and a current circulation of three million, People's Daily is among the most influential newspapers in China. According to UNESCO, it takes its place among the world top 10.

"People's Daily brings you the latest news dispatches of policy information and resolutions of the Chinese Government and major domestic news and international news releases from China," Huang said.

"It reflects the views of the Chinese people and the government," he said.

Published under the People's Daily are also 10 newspapers, including People's Daily Overseas Edition, East China News, South China News, Market Daily, International Financial Daily, Securities Times and six monthly magazines, including The Earth, News Front and People Forum.

To date, People's Daily has got the contents of its subsidiary papers and magazines onto the Internet to disseminate information throughout the world.

Daily Online was formally launched on January 1, 1997.

The websites are now available in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Tibetan, Korean, Mongolian, English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.

It has also set up mirror sites in Japan and the US, with contributions from more than 1,000 journalists from over 70 stations around the world and 500-plus cooperative media as an important channel for foreign readers to know China on the Internet, Huang said.