Daily News 2005/11/10

The number of subscribers of color ring service will reach 60 million, and the market size will exceed 3 billion RMB yuan

Color ring service is a value-added telecom service that has been growing very rapidly in the recent years. From August to September of 2005, CCW Research made a research through online survey and telephone interview on the national market of color ring, getting 8,753 questionnaires (6,479 questionnaires being effective). This market research is aimed to know about the characteristics of demand, curent status of color ring service and to forecast the development trend of the business.

The color ring business is developing dramatically. As for the earliest mobile color ring service provided in China, there were only about 2 million users in 2003, while by the end of 2004 the number was over 20 million. After entering the second half of 2004, this service exploded as fast as SM service once did (especially in 2005). It is the most popular value-added service at present.

Among the mobile subscribers in the research, 30.3% of them are using or has used color ring service. Considering the method taken and the sample error, the conservative result is that the penetration rate of color ring service in China is over 10%. According to the total number of mobile subscribers (340 million), the total number of color ring service subscriber is over 34 million. It has been another growth point following mobile voice service and SM service. CCW Research forecasts that in 2005 the growth rate of it will reach 102.8%, and there will be 68,952,000 persons using such service by that time.

WAP market of China to reach 17 billion RMB yuan in 2008

According to the data collected by Analysys International, China's WAP market worth 16,942 million RMB yuan. At present the consumption is centered on entertainment service, and there is not much difference between the users of the two operators. Incomes from pictures and rings account for 64% and 57% of the total income of China Mobile and China Unicom

From 2004, the two companies (China Mobile and China Unicom) begun to focus on WAP business. As Analysys International forecasts, by the end of 2005 there will be 35 million registered users of WAP service in China, and the market value will be as much as 5.7 billion RMB yuan. After entering into 2005, the operators begun to prepare for 3G market, and begun to regulate the WAP market. In June 2004, China Mobile launched "MO" brand for the market promotion of WAP. By March of 2005, China Unicom has about 9.68 million registered users of WAP service, with a penetration rate of 34.17%. 60% to 70% of the registered users are active ones.

The market of mobile message service growing rapidly in America

In 2004, the income from SM service on American market increased by 106% than that of the last year. It is anticipated that in the coming five years the income will continue to grow very rapidly. In 2004 in America the income from mobile data accounted for only 4.8% of the total income from mobile services, while in Europe the number is 15.9% and in Jpan, 22.0%. The key point is that American users don't like using SMS and other message services as much.