The piggery will cover an area of 800 square kilometers. Mr Ding's assistant Zhou Jiong revealed that the pig farm was designed by experts from the School of Architecture under Tsinghua University. Since all preliminary work has finished, it will soon start construction.

In fact, the news that Mr Ding was studying pig-breeding techniques had been circulating for nearly two years. After much anticipation of the release of Ding's brand of pork, people began to suspect that Ding's interest was merely for fun.

"Our aim is to build a Netease pig breeding demonstration base and to make it easy for others to copy our success. We do have a long-term plan for the pig farm," Zhou Jiong stressed. It seems both Ding and his company are taking the pig breeding project very seriously.

It is worth noting that DMr ing's piggery idea has spurred an interest in agriculture among many Internet tycoons. Chen Yizhou, chairman of the Oak Pacific Interactive Corporation, has revealed a similar idea, and Liu Qiangdong, CEO of 360buy.com, also announced the other day that he will rent 3,800 square kilometers of land in his hometown to grow rice.