A latterday Rip Van Winkle who fell asleep in March 2000 and woke up this summer might conclude that the internet bubble had never burst - it had simply shifted from the US to China. This week, Yahoo handed over $1bn (£550m) cash and its assets in China in return for a 40 per cent stake in Alibaba, a local e-commerce portal. Earlier this month Baidu.com, the leading Chinese search engine, soared 350 per cent on its Nasdaq debut, and now trades at more than 2,000 times earnings.

Those who have been awake for the past five years might find the China.com mania even more remarkable. Memory of the dotcom bust has not deterred investors from pouring money into immature companies in the hope of future riches. This new internet boom is built on sounder foundations than the last, but it still looks detached from hard business reality.