Mobile content driving growth of operator CMCC Guangdong

China’s largest provincial mobile operator, Communications Corporation Guangdong (CMCC GD), currently has 2 million subscribers. It expects to have 3 million by the end of the year - driven mainly by it’s mobile content service, Baihe. The service, powered by 724 solutions, provides video, news and entertainment content.

Baihe provides newspaper, magazine, radio and mobile TV services, and CCMCC GD claims it is used by subscribers on average twice a day - with traffic reaching 4 million downloads every day.

From the release:

“In the China market, next generation messaging services give the subscriber the choice of content and the choice of delivery mechanism,” said Mr. Q.P. Hu, Project Lead of CMCC GD. “With current daily growth rate for our Baihe service, we expect to exceed three million subscribers before the end of the year.”

“As the leading market innovator in China, CMCC GD, with its Baihe service, enables subscribers to always be in touch with critical information suited for their lifestyle all the time,” said John Sims, Chief Executive Officer of 724 Solutions. “The high capacity, intelligence and extensible nature of 724’s platform enables CMCC GD to offer next generation messaging services today and then to easily expand and scale to meet the services requirements of the ever-evolving All-Ways Connected Lifestyle.”

What we think?

Not so long ago “mobile content” would have meant ringtones and wallpapers. CMCC GD is looking at 4 million downloads a day for more beefy content - audio and video content for both news and entertainment. The real secret to driving mobile downloads would seem to be this: if your content is good, and it’s easier to access via mobile than any other channel, then you’ll get subscribers. The former isn’t much a of a problem in Europe and America these days, as more and more mobiles are able to handle exactly the same content as a computer. The latter part still isn’t quite there, though. It’s still usually easier to access content via a mobile - but with the spread of faster networks, better handsets and improved software, that could change very quickly.