M:Metrics on Mobile Media Consumption in China

Written by Tangos on February 19, 2008
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According to latest data from the Ministry of Information Industry, there were about 550 million mobile subscribers in China by the end of 2007. Mobile handsets will undoubtedly become the most used media consumption device among Chinese users, if it is not yet. M:Metrics recently released its study on mobile media consumption in China. (hat tip to Terry).

According to M:Metrics’ December Benchmark Survey, mobile entertainment is popular among the Chinese, with an astonishing 34.8 percent reporting they listened to mobile music in the month, much higher than other countries studied by M:Metrics. Nevertheless, only 4.4% purchased ringtones, much less than the percentage in US market, and no significant difference with other countries.

10% played a downloaded mobile game in mobile phone.

However, Only 0.9% watched video on their mobile handsets, much lower than other countries. Is it partly because of lack of WiFi features in all mobile phones sold in China?

Similar to the email usage rate among the Internet users in China, the percentage of users who use email via mobile phones(2.2%) is much lower than those of other countries, for instance, 11.6% in US. Less percentage of Chinese people use mobile phone to access news or online information as well.

The study also found that while Nokia has a substantial lead in terms of share of handset owners in China, at 30.9 percent, owners of Sony Ericsson handsets are a driving force in the mobile media sector.

5 Responses to “M:Metrics on Mobile Media Consumption in China”

  1. Florian Pihs on February 19th, 2008 11:34 am

    Hi Tangos. Some comments:
    - only 4.4% purchased ringtones: There is little incentive to pay for ringtone downloads when you get the MP3 for free on Baidu (and then upload it to you phone). that is why ring back tones (RBT) work so much better as a business model. The music is hosted on the MVAS providers server.
    - 0.9% watched video on their mobile handsets. I would argue that this is due to the lack of a 3G network, not because of Wi-fi. Mobile video is rarely consumer over Wi-fi in Europe, South Korea or Japan (not sure about the US)
    - email over the phone: Two reasons a)SMS is cheap and extremely popular in China, there is limited additional need for mobile email. b) Corporate mobile email (e.g. Blackberry) is not well developed. I guess that is due to the maturity of local IT departments and China Mobile’s urge to control the complete ecosystem.

  2. Catshanghai » links for 2008-02-19 on February 19th, 2008 1:21 pm

    [...] M:Metrics on Mobile Media Consumption in China : China Web2.0 Review “According to latest data from the Ministry of Information Industry, there were about 550 million mobile subscribers in China by the end of 2007. Mobile handsets will undoubtedly become the most used media consumption device among Chinese users” (tags: mobile, China, trends) [...]

  3. Tangos on February 19th, 2008 9:39 pm

    @Florian Pihs, thanks for your insightful comment.

    - for mobile video, I think both network issue and wifi feature affect it, and the fee structure based on traffic also made people worried about the online video traffic on mobile handsets. But some statistics said on Feb. 6, over 2 million people watched CCTV’s 2008 Spring Festival Gala on their mobile phones, and over 300k watched Chinese national football on the same day.

    - mobile email: yes, no blackberry in China so far. On the other hand, when less people use email in their PC in China, you can not imagine there are a lot of people will use mobile email.

    - music, I agree with your comment on ringtone consumption in China. As for the high rate of mobile music usage, maybe more Chinese will take phone as a mp3 player instead of taking another ipod.

  4. { design@tive } information design » Blog Archive » Chinese People and Their Mobile Phones: Metrics on Mobile Media Consumption in China on February 24th, 2008 10:04 am

    [...] The study also found that while Nokia has a substantial lead in terms of share of handset owners in China, at 30.9 percent, owners of Sony Ericsson handsets are a driving force in the mobile media sector.read more | digg story [...]

  5. Fantblog » Blog Archive » 550 miljoner mobiler i Kina on August 3rd, 2008 6:47 am

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