If you visit any city in China you will see them: mobile phones.
Currently, the Chinese mobile market is growing rapidly and mobile
operators are being engaged in competition to create new demand.
It is expected that over 600 million Chinese people - 44% of the
total population - will subscribe to mobile communications service by
2010.
China is the world's largest telecom market by far, dwarfing the U.S.,
Europe and neighboring Japan and it
is still just a fraction of what it will soon be. Today's
half a billion Chinese mobile
customers will be 650 million by 2013 and
well over one billion in 2023.
China's wireless phone sector is an industry growing
more than 3 times the rate of the overall
broad based economy. This rapid and
pervasive shift to mobile communications in
China represents nothing short of a second
People's Revolution. Let's try to put it
in perspective.
By the end of 2006, there were 439
million mobile phone subscribers in China,
representing only 34% market penetration.
In comparison, there were approximately
170 million mobile phone subscribers in the
United States.
Even more interesting is the Chinese passion
for cellular technology. In 2006, 48 million
Chinese customers purchased their first
mobile phones. In 2007, 70 million
more did the same thing. The number
of mobile phone users in China has risen by an average of 5.5 million
each month since
the end of 2005. And the pace of growth
is increasing - at times there are
a thousand new subscribers
signing on per minute!!!!!!
In Beijing and Shanghai, the mobile
penetration rate is quickly approaching 100%
as nearly every adult owns at least one cell
phone. Each day, China is becoming more
and more like the country's two leading
cities. No wonder China
Mobile (BIDU) has the largest mobile network in world.