China Mobile to split mobile reading revenues with content providers 60:40
Beijing. September 25. INTERFAX-CHINA - China Mobile Communications Corp. (China Mobile) has entered into framework agreements with 10 content providers as a result of the Sept. 23 mobile reading summit held in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, and will split revenues 60:40, with China Mobile taking the larger slice, a China Mobile source told Interfax on Sept. 24.
Wang Ding, general manager of the data service department in China Mobile's Zhejiang subsidiary, told Interfax on Sept. 24 that the 10 new partners include major publishing houses such as China Publishing Group, China Citic Press and Zhejiang Publishing United Group, as well as three literary portals operated by Shanda Literature Ltd. and Chineseall.com.
China Mobile announced at the summit that it has 80 million subscribers reading digital publications on their mobile phones, which account for 20 percent to 30 percent of the telecom operator's total data traffic. It also said that 160 million China Mobile users out of a total user base of 500 million use mobile Internet.
China Mobile's own mobile WAP reading portal, wap.cmread.com, and its mobile reading software, which were both launched in June, have accumulated 2 million users over the past three months, according to the same announcement.
Interfax reported on Sept. 14 that China Mobile has made its mobile reading service a priority in the forthcoming 3G era, and on Sept. 23 that China Mobile will invest RMB 500 million ($73.2 million) over the next five years in its Zhejiang Province-based mobile reading center.
-CG