The Most Visited Blog In China

dtdg777.blog.163.com. The blog  started in February and had 16 million visits within 3 months. Its highest record within a single day is 1.5 million visits. Why so popular? It gives you share trading tips.

The popularity of the blog accurately reflects the share trading frenzy in China. Up until now, there are a total 96 million trading accounts in just Shanghai and Shenzhen alone, out of which 70 million are retail. I believe the ratio is the highest in the world.

Speculative share trading has become the new get-rich-quick scheme in China and the traders come from all walks of life. I think the scariest scene is the huge crowd waiting outside broker shops every morning. Once the door is open, people just rush in and fight for a spot in front of the terminal. You will see rows and rows of terminals which people just sit in front of for the entire trading day, and they bring drinks, food, things to read. Interestingly, quite a big portion of these people are retirees. They are basically gambling with their entire life's savings. I don't know why they have to use the terminals to look at the prices and place orders, I have always just used Etrade at home. Maybe in China you can't trade shares online from home, or people just like using free stuff at the local broker shops.

As for dtdg777, he was arrested a few days ago and the blog is of course closed now. Apparently he was asking his followers to pay hefty fees to join the special club for more and better tips. No information on how much he has got so far but one report claims it's probably around 7 million RMB (that's very close to 1 million USD).