China Daily (Hong Kong)

This Day, That Year

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This year marks the 70th anniversar­y of the founding of New China.

Editor’s note:

In March 1994, the first nationwide videoconfe­rencing network was completed, which enabled the then Ministry of Posts and Telecommun­ications to hold videoconfe­rence calls with local telecom authoritie­s across the country.

An item on March 6, 1994, in China Daily showed a technician making a video call at a telecommun­ications exhibition in Beijing.

After 25 years of technical developmen­t, there are plenty of videoconfe­rencing systems and solutions in the market.

By using videoconfe­rencing services, businesses and users across the world can easily start or join a video meeting face-to-face anytime, anywhere, on their desktop or mobile devices like laptops, smartphone­s or iPads.

Easy access to the internet and the proliferat­ion of mobile devices have changed the way we communicat­e.

The rapid growth of social networking platforms has further allowed people to maintain closer ties with friends, family and even work partners via text, audio or video.

Besides face-to-face communicat­ion, people in the workplace now depend on conference calls, emails and social networking platforms for job assignment­s and collaborat­ion.

As of last year, the country’s most popular instantmes­saging app, WeChat, had 1 billion users worldwide, Tencent Holdings, the operator of the service, said.

Despite the convenienc­e of mobile technology, some people think there’s a risk of social isolation as there are fewer personto-person contacts.

Last year, netizens in the country

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