• by March 1, 2005

It's March! Welcome to a new month, and a long one. Also, Happy 10th birthday to Yahoo! The Internet giant celebrates a decade in business tomorrow.

In New York, though, the party begins tonight as Yahoo! hosts a performance of "SpamAlot," the new Broadway show based on the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." The musical, starring David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azaria, and Tim Curry, is playing in previews and Yahoo! has graciously invited the Minute, along with other media types, and a host of marketers and agencies to tonight's performance. We're looking forward to swinging from the rafters with the cast, crew, and Yahoo!

Now, another little tidbit: Yahoo! is offering people a free scoop of Baskin-Robbins ice cream to celebrate its 10th birthday. Tomorrow, on the Yahoo! home page, a coupon for the free scoop will appear, and is redeemable at participating Baskin scoop shops on March 2. That's a quick turnaround.

From Yahoo! to Monty Python to ice cream to China. Yes, China.

Did you know that Web usage in China is expected to grow 28 percent this year to 120 million, according to the country's official Xinhua news agency, citing an official with China's Ministry of Information Industry? Now whether this is true or not, (don't you have to wonder when it comes to data from an "official" news agency?), there is still every reason to believe that Internet use in China, the world's most populous country, perhaps rivaling India, is exploding. In 2004, the agency reports, the number of Internet users grew 16 percent to 94 million.

International Data Corp. reports that China is the world's No. 2 PC market; it shipped nearly 16 million units last year. That number is expected to grow another 13 percent in 2005.

Not surprisingly, China is the world's biggest telecommunications market by number of subscribers, with 316 million fixed-line users, and 340 million mobile users as of January, according to Xinhua. By some projections, China will have 402 million mobile subscribers by the end of 2005.