According to a new poll by Commtouch Spam Lab, China hosts 73.58% of the world's Unsolicited Commercial Email ("UCE") websites.

The survey analyzed hundreds of millions of UCE messages in the first six months of 2004, and found that in the first half of 2004 drug-offers were the most prevalent form of merchandising included in spammer messages, representing 29.53% of all global spam, and that the primary language for UCE messages was English.

In the first six months of 2004, Viagra appeared in 14.1% of all UCE messages–with 9% of those messages solely advertising Viagra, and the remaining 5.1% selling Viagra in addition to another drug or several drugs.

The Commtouch Spam Lab reports that most global spam during the first half of 2004 was written in English, with foreign languages employed for just 5.77% of global UCE. Most of the unsolicited messages sent over the Internet have one or more link (URL) in the message; spammers are setting those links to provide more information regarding the products/services they are trying to promote, or to allow users to buy the promoted products online.

In recent months China has attempted to diminish the amount of nefarious activities consuming its bandwidth. In May it held high-level meetings with representatives from Spamhaus, the global non-profit organization that assists law enforcement agencies with tracking and shutting down spamgangs, virus writers, and hackers around the world. Spamhaus also established a China website at www.spamhaus.cn and has agents in China working with Chinese authorities.

At the beginning of 2004, the Internet Society of China also disseminated a list of global IP addresses it says were peppering China-based servers with UCE. The list was widely derided by both technologists inside and outside of China as poorly prepared, because it contained IP addresses of both anti-spam organizations and large UCE-free servers around the world.