Internet-related enterprises won't be allowed to publish online magazines (Ezines) until they get a business license issued by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), according to a China Business News report.

GAPP will bring online magazines into its supervisory scope by drafting Regulations on Internet Publication Management in the near future, Kou Xiaowei, deputy director of GAPP's Audiovisual and Internet Publication Department, was quoted by the paper as saying on April 24. The move aims to further standardize and effectively supervise online publications.

Kou explained that, before seeking permission from the Ministry of Information to carry on any business within the scope of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or Internet Content Provider (ICP), enterprises must be first examined and approved for an appropriate business license by GAPP.

An online magazine is defined as one delivered in an electronic form and published online-only, or the online version of a normally printed publication. Today, most online magazines form full Internet websites.

Since 2005, China has seen a rapid development of online magazines with state-owned Ezine enterprises numbering up to 100 and individually-owned ones growing at a high rate, Kou said.

Currently, the state manages its online magazine publication according to the Measures on the Administration of Internet Information Services issued by GAPP in 2000 and the Interim Provisions on the Administration of Internet Publishing issued in 2002. Previously, any website with relevant ICP-operating permission could produce and issue online magazines without periodical numbers as is required for print-published magazines.

A GAPP official said the existing measures and provisions were low in legal effect and, therefore, limited in their law enforcement ability. The proposed Regulations on Internet Publication Management have been listed in the state's legislative plan and will be issued in the name of the State Council.

"All formal and standard enterprises can pass examination and approval while those Ezines published by individual websites will probably be the most influenced," said Mei Wenhua, chairman of the board of directors of the CDM Co, an online publisher. "The examination and approval system is advantageous to the standardization of online magazine trade management and the improvement of publication quality."

According to the China Digital Magazine Research Report jointly conducted by iResearch Consulting Group and GAPP, the number of Ezine subscribers stood at 40 million in China in 2006, equivalent to 30 percent of the total number of its "netizens." The figure is expected to reach 40 percent by 2010.

Cao Jinbo, a senior analyst from iResearch, said most subscribers of Ezines in China were male, aged between 19-39, with high-level educational background, and reasonably high fixed income.

Currently, the profits of Chinese Ezines come from advertising and information consultancy. Statistics from iResearch show that the Ezine advertising market scale was worth 90 million yuan (US$11.6 million) in 2006, accounting for nearly 2 percent of the country's total Internet advertising market scale. The figure is expected to reach 200 million yuan (US$25.9 million) in 2007 and 1.06 billion yuan (US$137.3 million) in 2010.

(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong, April 27, 2007)