Spread the message, China Mobile’s cashing in

Posted by Joel

3â€¦2â€¦1 RINGGGGGGGGG! When the clock strikes midnight on the eve of Chinese New Year fireworks are not the only cacophonous sound in the air. Millions of peopleâ€™s mobile phones start ringing simultaneously as their friends and family send them bulk text messages (aka SMS messages) filled with New Yearâ€™s wishes.

That is how the bulk text messaging phenomenon in China began. Nowadays, the use of this form of text messaging is not limited solely to major holidays. Young Chinese, especially college students and recent grads, use it as a means to let friends know they are thinking about one another. Sounds like a nice way to stay in touch, right? Wrong. Think about that friend you have who always sends you those chain emails full of stupid jokes. After the first one or two it gets to be more than a little annoying.

Bulk text messages are more like spamming your loved ones rather than expressing your care and concern. Most of the time other people, not the sender, have written the message content. Take a look at xf1.cn. The main purpose of this and similar websites is to provide users with prewritten text messages. The messages are classified into various categories like humorous, congratulatory and love. Friends search until they find an appropriate message and then forward it on as though it were written by them personally. Regardless, when a Chinese person receives a very well written text, he still cannot help but forward it on to all of his friends.

Mobile operators, specifically China Mobile, benefit the most from the bulk text messaging trend. With a roughly 68% market share and over 400 million customers, China Mobile is the leading mobile operator in all of China. Think of it this way:

-If Xiaoping, a subscriber of China Mobile, sends one text message then the mobile operator earns money.

-If Xiaoping sends the same text message to everyone in his phonebook, then the mobile operator earns money for each contact the message is sent to.

-Now letâ€™s say the text message content is extremely well written and over 50% of Xiaopingâ€™s friends then decide to send it on to all of their friendsâ€¦

You get the picture. A well written text message can potentially lead to viral growth in SMS messages as they spread out among multiple circles of friends. The end result is that China Mobile earns a substantial portion of income from text messaging. I have even heard of China Mobile sponsoring text message writing competitions. The winnerâ€™s text message gets forwarded all throughout China, and China Mobile collects a handsome sum of money for providing its text messaging service.