SMS & MMS Market Review and Forecast of China 2002

Short Messaging Service (SMS) protocol appeared in the 1980s and came into market in the 1990s. In the world the first piece of short message was sent from a PC to a mobile phone via Vodafone GSM network in December 1992. In the following years SMS was not widely spread, merely applied to notify users of email arriving. However, SMS had a fundamental change in 1998. With voice transaction clearly slowing down, it was urgent to develop mobile data transaction. In this case, some European telecommunications operators eyed on SMS, the "gold mine" ignored for many years. Such carriers as Vodafone operated SMS in a large scale and developed various applications, like message customization, image and ring download, and mobile game and payment in pursuit of new business growth; consequently, it brought about SMS boom. At present, SMS subscribers account for 82% of total mobile users in Europe where SMS stemmed from. European telecommunications enterprises have gained great profits from SMS market; for example, 9.1% of Vodafone's revenue was attributed to mobile data, among which 95% was from SMS.

In 2001, global SMS experienced such a rapid growth that the message total was up to 200 billion pieces. In China, 15.9 billion pieces were sent via China Mobile network and 3 billion via China Unicom in 2001 and SMS is expected to over 30 billion pieces in 2002 thanks to interconnecting between China Mobile and China Unicom networks. As China Telecom and China Netcom entered SMS market, SMS on fixed phones will possibly play an important role.

The amount of Chinese mobile users was over 160 million at the end of 2002 April and will estimatedly increase to 450 million in 2005 with growth rate of 5 million per month. 80% users are below 30 years and they are the main body of SMS consumption, so there is being a great developing potential in the Chinese SMS market.

In the research report, PDAY Research executed powerful analysis and comprehensive evaluation (carriers, ICPs, enterprise applications etc.) of the global SMS market, especially the Chinese SMS market, through detailed survey and research, and data analysis and estimate. It also presented its in-depth understanding and put forward valuable suggestion on the Chinese SMS market development.