I read an article in the Global Times Friday titled "Online equality is disappearing fast as new barriers go up." 

The author, Rong Xiaoqing, holds a very interesting idea that the Internet, a virtual world, resembles the real world more. Rong cites examples such as the stratification of virtual society and the hierarchy of speech. 

According to her theory, the Internet will abandon Net neutrality, a major quality many Net users cherish, and let the strong - people who have more resources and a bigger say - decide what kind of voices will be heard.

Rong's argument is based on two basic concepts of sociology, which are class solidification and the Matthew Effect, a phenomenon where "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer."

In real life, these two concepts can apply at almost every stage of human history.

However, I think Rong has made an early conclusion that the Internet will be assimilated by the real world.

She ignores the fact that on the Internet, the distribution of resources costs much less.

No matter how many efforts the elite strive to make to gild the superiority of their little coteries, they can hardly put the so-called grass roots into an asymmetric position to acquire the resources on the virtual Internet.

For example, no matter how strictly laws and regulations are reinforced to protect intelligence property rights, it is impossible to block all copycats of Internet products, and it is much less risky to release information on the Internet.

Thus, the elite won't be able to gain their accumulative advantages easily.

The article claims that high-end cliques and their games are less proof of the stratification of the Internet than they are the embodiment of diversity. In the real world, diversity is a contributing factor of social injustice, but on the Internet, it is the key to making different minds establish contact and express their voices.

A latest research shows that the popularity of the promulgator is now a critical element that determines whether a message can be circulated as quickly and widely as possible.

However, the trend will not go to extremes where only a small number of people end up controlling the flow of information.

It is an obvious result that all Net users will gradually assume different labels and be classified into various groups. But unlike the real world, it is impossible to forcefully impose limits among different groups.

After all, what flows in the veins of the Internet is information, and that cannot be blocked like capital or technology in the real world.

Liang Xiaoming, a venture capitalist based in Shanghai