China Mobile Sees Growth Opportunities From Music, Payments

China Mobile

Even China Mobile, which is adding 4 to 5 million new mobile subscribers a month and has a subscriber base of 500 million users in a country with 800 million subscribers, is worried about what happens when everyone has a mobile phone. To that end, it’s investing in 3G data services, much like carriers in the U.S. and Europe. “Despite rising competition, we are confident that our net profit will continue to grow as growth in valued-added services such as mobile reading and music outpace the decline in voice tariff,” China Mobile’s new CEO Li Yue said at a press conference, according to the WSJ. Yue replaced Wang Jianzhou today as part of an expected management reshuffle.

China Mobile launched its 3G mobile service in January 2009, and has since increasingly focused on mobile internet services such as reading, video and games and it is expanding into the internet search-engine business. For instance, China Mobile’s parent signed an agreement last week with state-run Xinhua News Agency to launch a media and search-engine joint venture.

The NYTimes reports that China Mobile’s revenue from value-added businesses, like music and book downloads, rose more than 13 percent in the first half of the year, helping to lift the company

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