Note 1 - Organization and Nature of Operations

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2019

Notes to Financial Statements

Nature of Operations [Text Block]

1. Organization and nature of operations

ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc. (the “Company”) was incorporated in the State of Texas in

April 2006

and re-domiciled to become a Nevada corporation in

October 2006.

Through a share exchange transaction consummated on

June 26, 2009,

the Company is now a holding company, which, through certain contractual arrangements with operating companies in the People’s Republic of China (the “PRC”), is engaged in providing advertising, precision marketing, online to offline sales channel expansion and the related data services to small and medium enterprises in the PRC, through distribution of the right to use search engine marketing service the Company purchased from key search engines, online advertising placements on the Company’s advertising portals, sales of effective sales lead information and provision of TV advertising service. In early

2018,

the Company announced its expansion into the blockchain industry and the related technology. As of

March 31, 2019,

the Company was still in the process of developing its blockchain-powered marketing and advertising application platform (See Note

11

).