Determinants of Internet diffusion: A focus on China

•A theoretical framework called EPIC was proposed.•Global Internet is driven by literacy rate, infrastructure and content.•China's Internet industry has boomed in the past two decades.•China's Internet was mainly determined by Internet access cost and content.

Global Internet penetration could be attributable to many factors. Based on a new proposed framework called EPIC (Economy–Policy–Infrastructure–Content) and cross-sectional data, the world's Internet penetration was found to be determined by the literacy rate, telecom infrastructure and the availability of Internet content. To find out other possible lurking factors, another study particularly focused on China's booming while strictly controlled Internet industry. A multivariate time series analysis was performed to examine the relationships between China's Internet diffusion and these factors. The growth of Internet penetration was found to be mainly driven by the cost of Internet access, and Internet content, yet GDP per capita and telecom infrastructure failed to play roles. The implications were discussed at last.