【正文】 n. In spite of the profitability of major Chinese VW operators, close observation of the Chinese case suggests that even the most successful VW operators are still in the early stages of their business model development. Key words： Virtual world China Business model Online game 1. Introduction As the Inter continues to grow worldwide, Interbased channels have bee increasingly important for munication. As a result, online munities of many forms and for various purposes have developed and have enabled people to work, socialize and entertain themselves. Among the many types examples of online munities, a particularly interesting phenomenon is the virtual world (VW), a persistent synthetic environment where people municate with each other using a virtual persona, often called an avatar. VWs are a type of online game that can have thousands of people involved and potentially interacting at the same time. The vast majority of popular online games in China are VWs. MacInnes (2021a) provided an overview and framework for understanding the VW phenomenon. It is now important to supplement this work through case studies. We chose to begin with a single case study of the Chinese online game industry beca use its market for VWs is growing more quickly than in many other countries due to the rapid adoption of broadband among other factors. Social, legal and other environmental issues are discussed in this paper from the perspective of business models. The challenges and opportunities facing the current Chinese VW industry are not merely country specific. The same issues are likely to play out as less developed VW markets in North America and Europe grow. The lessons from this case can also be pared to other Inter based industries using the dynamic business model framework for emerging technologies (MacInnes, 2021a). This is a single case study of China as an exploratory project to determine the issues surrounding business models for virtual world developers and users. The paper addresses a number of questions. What alternative strategies are available to Chinese online game operators who are facing an increasingly petitive market? Will Chinese online game panies move upstream in their value chain? What is the role of broadband in the 浙江工業(yè)大學(xué)之江學(xué)院畢業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)（論文） 外文翻譯 8 development of the industry? How is Chinese society reacting to this new form of entertainment? Why has the online game industry achieved greater success in China than standalone puter games? 2. Theoretical context The growth of the Inter has enabled many new virtual munities to be established. One of the key issues facing a mercial virtual munity is finding a profitable business model that also fosters the initial growth of the munity toward critical mass. Early virtual munities were mainly scientific but more recent developments have motivated people to congregate in a virtual space to share personal interests. Virtual worlds provide a new level of graphical richness to virtual munities while also supporting plex market activities. The early years of the Inter emphasized bringing together researchers but once many universities were connected, munities based on personal interests developed. These often involved hobbies and entertainment (Rheingold, 1993). In these early days the most mon technologies were and listservs that later evolved into bulletin boards and MUDs where people began to create fantasy worlds (Castronova, 2021). These were forerunners of today’s graphical virtual worlds. Research about online munities has evolved. Scholars have documented the effectiveness and use of virtual munities in society to foster, for example, civic behavior (Blanchard and Horan, 1998) and social resistance movements (De, 2021). Virtual munities can also be used to create, gather, anize, and manage knowledge ( [Bruynseels and Vos