This Day, That Year

40 years on

Editor’s Note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

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 nationwide.

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

The rapid growth of socialnetworking 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.

Even videoconferencing is a breeze, thanks to the availability of numerous apps.

As of last year, the country’s most popular instantmessaging app, WeChat, had 889 million daily users, 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 person-to-person con- tacts. Last year, netizens in the country spent a weekly average of 27 hours on the internet, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.