William Ding, founder of the Chinese Internet portal NetEase, says the company will invest at last CNY10 million to set up a pig farm in Zhejiang province and establish a website to connect the Internet industry with agricultural pursuits.

According to an article on Chinese technology website ChinaByte.com, NetEase has reportedly completed the preliminary investigation and research work. It will adopt the breeding model with standardized production lines and feed the pigs with eco-friendly feed. NetEase, itself, has issued no response to this article, so it is still unclear if ChinaByte.com is hamming up this story.

Experts in the breeding industry say that China's current pork industry is in recession and many factories have even made losses. However, the high-end breeding market has a certain development space. Ding also says in the article that scientific breeding methods will produce better products.

Previously, at an Internet conference held in September 2008, Ding revealed that he would enter the agricultural market and NetEase already contacted some agricultural research institutions in Zhejiang at that time.

It is unclear yet how investors will react to their Internet-focused company moving to rural pursuits in China.