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Just a few short years ago, cell phones were simply used for making phone calls. Now, thanks to the popularity of short messaging, you can order fast food, check stock prices, request a radio station DJ to play a favorite tune, and help local TV stations choose which soccer game to show on the weekend.
The uses of short messaging - some practical, some frivolous - seem to be growing every day.
Just yesterday, a local recruitment agency launched a new service to keep job hunters up to date on vacancies through their mobile phones.
China may be a latecomer to the world of short messaging, or SMS as industry insiders like to call it, but the service is exploding as more and more companies find integrate wireless text into their business plans.
Perhaps that shouldn't be too surprising considering China is the world's largest mobile telecom market.
China Mobile Group, the country's largest mobile phone service provider, anticipates its users will send 40 billion messages this year.
China Human Resources Market (Shanghai) is the latest to jump on the bandwagon. Job seekers simply give the company some basic information, such as their name, age, and education background, as well as details about their work experience and the type of position desired.
Computers search the company's database, find suitable positions and send out a maximum of 10 short mes-sages to a customer every day, each priced at 0.3 yuan (3.6 U.S. cents).
Clients can cancel the service, naturally enough, by sending a short message.
"We initiated the service based on the boom of short messages and we believe it can efficiently meet the increasing requirements of both employers and job hunters while increasing our profits," said Lu Min, the company's deputy general manager.
Job seekers seem impressed.
"Three yuan a day to find a satis-factory job is cheap. More importantly, it is much more convenient than traditional ways of finding a job, such as going to job fairs or surfing online," said Wang Qi, who has registered to use the service.
If job seekers get hungry while they are waiting for a message from the company, they can always use short messaging to order some fast food.
Earlier this month, Lihua Snack, a nationwide door-to-door fast-food delivery company, began accepting orders by short message in Shanghai.
It is not just the city's growing population of young, well-educated yuppies who use SMS, cab drivers now use it to get up-to-the-minute traffic reports.
Radio DJs take requests by SMS, and often read comments sent to their mobile phones on the air.
Last weekend Shanghai TV Station's sports channel used short messaging to decide whether to broadcast an Italian League soccer match or one from the English Premier League first, as the two games kicked off at the same time.
More than 4,000 people voted by SMS, with 3,300 of them requesting a clash between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur - proving the value of the service as a tool for democ-racy, and the popularity of David Beckham.
Each week the channel will let users pick which game is broadcast on Saturday, announcing the candidate games each Wednesday in the local media and on its Website.
(eastday.com September 26, 2002)
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