creative industries
Cell Phone SMS News in Chinese Newspaper Groups: A Case Study of Yunnan Daily Press Group
Liu Cheng & Axel Bruns Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology
creativeindustries.qut.com
creative industries
Mobile Telephony and Yndaily
‒ Continuing mobile boom in China:
• rapid growth in number of users, volume of messages, range of services • but focus of studies largely on key areas (Shanghai, Beijing, etc.) • dominated by China Mobile and China Unicom
‒ Yunnan Daily Press Group:
• • • • key regional news organisation case study for developments in other regional areas SMS, WAP, MMS news services since 2002 overseen by Liu Cheng, vice-director of Yndaily information and network centre
creativeindustries.qut.com
creative industries
Rapid Growth in Users
Amounts of mobile phone users in China
X:Time Y:Amount Unit: Million Sources: The Ministry of Information Industry of the P.R.C 440 420 400 380 360 340 320 300 280 260 240 220 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
393.428 377.924 363.168 349.05 334.824 320.071 305.283 290.305 268.693 249.974 234.472 221.491 206.616 190.391 176.169 161.5 145.222
84.533 43.3
Sep-99
Dec-99
Mar-00
Jun-00
Sep-00
Dec-00
Mar-01
Jun-01
Sep-01
Dec-01
Mar-02
Jun-02
Sep-02
Dec-02
Mar-03
Jun-03
Sep-03
Dec-03
Mar-04
Jun-04
Sep-04
Dec-04
Mar-05
Jun-05
Sep-05
Dec-05
creativeindustries.qut.com
Mar-06
creative industries
SMS Use in China
‒ SMS development initially slow:
• limitation to Latin script until 1997 • thus absence of SMS value-added services • China Monternet (Mobile+Internet) as first key service in 2001
‒ Common value-added services today:
• Information, including news, weather, examinations, and English learning; • Entertainment, including short message games, mobile phone pictures, ring tones downloads, jokes, and other entertainment participation; • Communications, including mobile chat, and email; • Commercial, including mobile phone stock trading and mobile phone banking; and • Special services, including location-based services (similar to GPS) (China Mobile, 2006)
creativeindustries.qut.com
creative industries
The SMS Explosion
2000-2005 Chinese SMS Usage Volume
Unit: Billion Messages Sources: The Ministry of Information Industry of the P.R.C
Billion Messages
340 320 300 280 260 240 220 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
304.65 217.76 137.1 90 18.9
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Year
1
2000
1999
creativeindustries.qut.com
creative industries
Market Development
2001-2006 China Mobile Value-added market and forecast
Total income
Unit: Billion Yuan (RMB) 1AU$=6Yuan RMB
70 60 50
41.5 57.15
40 30 20 10
1.98 9.36 22.677 25.256
0 2000
2001
2002
2003 2004 Year
2005
2006
2007
creativeindustries.qut.com
creative industries
The Mobile Services Downturn
‒ Problems with mobile services:
• • • • • • • • unethical business practices until 2005 poor management, lack of regulation uninvited messages, inability to cancel illegal billing practices government intervention, some providers shut down also negative effect on legitimate providers still overall market growth, but notably slowed emergence of key market leaders / oligopolists
creativeindustries.qut.com
creative industries
Mobile News in Yunnan Province
‒ Established in 2002:
• • • • joint venture between Yunnan Mobile and Yunnan Daily Press harnessing existing content from Yndaily publications cross-promotion through Yndaily and Yunnan Mobile products initial problem of technological limitations
∘ 70 Chinese characters per SMS message ∘ 2-5 messages per day ∘ requires tight editing
• growth and decline echoing market development
‒ New opportunities:
• MMS newspaper • 3G services
creativeindustries.qut.com
creative industries
Key Strategies
‒ Yndaily’s key options for growing the market:
• Leveraging existing content sources
∘ building on established news brands
• Interactive options and participatory journalism
∘ user participation growing in spite of overall market downturn
• MMS Services
∘ overcoming character limitations, incorporating image, audio, video content
• 3G Services
∘ but problems with technology changeover and market oligopoly
creativeindustries.qut.com
creative industries
Convergence Opportunities
‒ Beyond mobile telephony:
• especially 3G devices no longer phones • restructuring of Yndaily as multimedia group • increasing focus on user involvement
‒ Towards new models
• growing focus on product R&D: e.g. through the China Digital Newspaper Lab • but need for better and more streamlined government regulation • threat of oligopoly led by China Mobile (especially in 3G market) • need for further insights beyond the rapid growth in use
creativeindustries.qut.com