James Delahunty
21 Apr 2009 12:45
Use of mobile phones is continuing to grow substantially in China, and with it, usage of premium music download services and multimedia messaging is setting new records. There are about 648 million mobile users in the country, after 26.7 million subscribed to the three main state-owned carriers in the first quarter. Users sent over 174 billion text messages on China Mobile's network alone.
More China Mobile subscribers are also using their phones to download songs and send messages via MMS. The carrier counted over 384 million users of its wireless music service, where paid downloads of songs by Chinese and Taiwanese pop stars are particularly popular. However, average revenue per year fell for China Mobile as it added more low-end users and launched promotional deals in a marketing move.
China Mobile is offering "more economical" packages and plans for users. "We've kind of reached saturation of what I would call the high-end to the medium-end market in China," said David Wolf, CEO of Wolf Group Asia, a Beijing-based technology consultancy. China Mobile also has another obvious problem with it's lack of attractive handsets compared to its rivals.