Modern loanwords in Chinese I've noticed that in modern Chinese there's a lot of loanwords that are translated in multiple ways:


  激光 vs 雷射 
  
  互联网 vs 因特网


Generally one version will sound similar to the English pronunciation and one uses native words to mean the same thing as the original word. In my experience, the native word is usually preferred/more prestigious. This is very unusual in comparison to Japanese, which heavily prefers using the English/foreign loanword instead of the native equivalent. 

Is there any reason for this? Or maybe this is just my imagination?
互联网 and 因特网 may be different things - "internet" vs "Internet".

Coming up with loanwords isn't a standardised practice; in the beginning you'll have separate groups coming up with different words, but over time the need to communicate will encourage people to start using the same one. Take LASER for example; since it was invented in the US, there were many Chinese loanwords - some out of use ones include 光的受激辐射放大器, 光量子放大器, 莱塞. In this case, Qian Xuesen came up with the 激光 word, and since he was so well respected in PRC, everyone there used that. Due to the political situation at the time, Taiwan continued to use 雷射.

These days it's more likely that loanwords will converge quickly, since science and commerce are so open and interconnected. But earlier in history, this process could take a long time. One notable example is the Qing-dynasty loanwords for the US president. The concept was very foreign, of a supreme leader that is elected by peers for a limited term; historian Jonathan Spence counted up to 100 different versions, with words like 伯理玺天地.