Nearly every mobile phone user has received a short message via
SMS, varying from notices, greetings to advertisements and
pictures. The fast speed and rich content of SMS (Short Message
Services) cannot be compared to any other media. According to
statistics from
Beijing Morning Post, this year SMS on China
Mobile will reach 50 billion, three times more than last year. As a
result, the sales volume will reach 6 billion yuan. Short messages
are, it seems, emerging as a new media form.
Low Costs Stimulate Business
As
early as December 1992, the Vodafone Group (PLC) sent the first
short message or SMS in the world from a computer to a mobile phone
via its GSM network. But it was not until 1998 that mobile telecom
operators in Europe began to realize the business value of SMS. The
price of each SM was only 15 cents while its costs were almost nil
(since these messages cost the phone companies almost nothing to
manage -- it was the user who created and sent the content most of
the time), resulting in a high profit margin. The SMS craze swept
through Europe with customers making up 82 percent of mobile phone
users in Europe while the function of SMS changed profoundly over
the years.
With the rapid increase of mobile phone users in China, Chinese
operators started to pay attention to SMS. From 2000, China Mobile
and China Union, one after another, developed SMS, and soon they
were surrounded by many content providers. SMS evolved into a big
industry as it has covered a wide range of content from news,
games, jokes to graphs, bells, instant chat and traffic services.
Some people even think the first profit of China's "Dot Com"
(network company) companies was due to SMS.
Wang Jianjun, vice general-manager of Sohu.com, said that the
development of SMS contributes a great deal to Sohu.com's profit
surplus for it accounted for about 60 percent of its revenue last
quarter. "SMS will serve as one of the main profit models of
Sohu.com in the coming years," he added.
Meanwhile, the position of SMS is also proved by information from
the so-called short-message champion: Netease.com. Sun Deli, both
the CEO and trustees, expressed a similar point of view that SMS
plays a big role in Netease.com's profits. In addition, according
to one senior staff member from Netease.com, the wireless-data
service (mainly refers to SMS) makes up at least 50 percent of the
profit last quarter for Netease.com.
It
has been suggested that by the end of 2002, China had more than 200
million mobile phone customers who keep expanding at the rate of 4
million per month. China Mobile claimed that all together its
mobile phone customers sent 80 billion short messages in 2002, 15.9
billion more than in 2001.
Some experts pointed out why SMS is seen by websites as "pillar" in
its profit making. Among many short message content providers,
websites serve as a base or center. In general practice, for each
short message, after excluding 0.05 yuan (transportation) fee,
remaining profit is divided in two: 15 percent for the operator and
85 percent for the websites. Compared with other profit models of
"high invest and low profit", profit from SMS is amazingly
high.
Customer-friendly Service
SMS on mobile phones combine the advantages of connection, speed,
efficiency, cheapness, while being easy to save and easy to
play.
Being a sort of wireless communication facility, mobile phones are
getting smaller and smaller in size while more and more powerful in
function with new technological developments. SMS can store
messages and attempt to deliver when available. So the customers
can send messages as they like without caring whether the
recipients are in service or not.
Although charges for the sound service are declining, the fees for
mobile phones are not cheap for most customers. So the price of
each short message appeals to customers at a cost of 10 fen in
China no matter how big the distance. What's more, the recipient is
free from charge. Compared with the sound service, which costs 0.40
yuan per minute, short messages are economical. Statistics show,
half of the customers spend more than 5 yuan on short messages per
month.
The contents of short messages are rich and colorful. From hottest
news, to fancy ads, jokes and street gossip, everything can be
included on a short message. Moreover, customers can order
information for their own needs, which enables different customers
to also find their own social circles.
The short message that originated from wireless networks has some
characteristics of Internet Media. Among these, the most
outstanding is interaction. Customers can participate in many
activities depending on their own interests. The activities range
from polls, games to lotteries and riddles. For example, at the end
of 2001, on Channel V, a popular music TV program, "List of Top
Chinese Pop Music" conducted SMS voting through Monternet.com. In
addition, SMS offers traffic service and stock news.
Easiest Way to Reach the World
Back to the Sept. 11 incident, many people came to know the news
first via SMS from news websites. No doubt, short messages have
incomparable advantages in terms of spreading news. News is
generally concise and develops quickly, so the media need to
broadcast it quickly and widely, which is to the advantages of
mobile phones. It is this function of mobile phones, which enables
many people to transfer the news to many others, that serves a
chain of "N communication." So, some media experts have estimated
that SMS will turn out to be the fifth media after Internet
Media.
(China.org.cn by Zheng Guihong, June 22, 2003)