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Three of China's leading Internet news portals have jointly launched a fresh service targeting the country's 400 million mobile phone users -- a special coverage of the upcoming annual full sessions of the national legislature and top advisory body.
Named "'Two Sessions' on the Palm" and jointly offered by xinhuanet.com, people.com.cn and qianlong.com, will challenge the dominance of traditional print and electronic media in "two sessions" coverage, sources with xinhuanet.com said here Thursday.
The "two sessions," convened once every year by the National People's Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), are slated to begin on Friday and Sunday respectively and last about ten days.
"Subscribers of our new service will be able to receive the latest reports about the sessions via texts, pictures, as well as audio and video clips," the xinhuanet.com sources said.
The subscribers are also entitled to join online surveys about the "two sessions" and leave their comments through mobile phone text messages. One of the survey topics is "what are the questions you want most to ask the premier at his regular press conference," said the sources.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to appear at a press conference and pick up questions from both domestic and foreign journalists shortly after the closing of the NPC annual session. It has become a routine practice for successive Chinese premiers for at least a decade.
The sources didn't explain how the most favored questions from mobile phone users could be conveyed to the premier before his press conference. But at last year's press conference, Wen did mention that he personally visited the xinhuanet.com website and learned what the netizens wanted most to know.
The sources also mentioned nothing about the charges of the new service on mobile phone subscriber. However, it is almost certain that the service will be another share-profit program between these Internet news providers and China's two leading mobile business operators, namely China Mobile and China Unicom.
As the total number of mobile phone users in China has exceeded 400 million, mobile phone related services, particularly mobile phone voting and text message greetings, have become a highly lucrative business in the country.
During this year's Spring Festival holidays, or the Chinese Lunar New Year period from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4, Chinese mobile phone users sent about 12 billion text messages, enabling China Mobile and China Unicom to rake in 950 million yuan (US$118.8 million) and 310 million yuan (38.8 million dollars) respectively.
In the latest mobile phone and online voting campaign, more than 100 million people cast their votes to name the two giant pandas to be presented by the Chinese mainland as goodwill gifts for the Taiwan compatriots. The final names of Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan literally mean "reunion."
A Beijing mobile phone user who participated in the campaign said that he was charged 6 yuan (about 75 cents) for the voting via text messages.
(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2006)
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