China's Newspapers Go Mobile

China's news media is in full blossom of mobile adaptability. China's rapid economic development and per capita GDP growth has driven vigorous development of the media industry with a growth rate of 11.9% in 2005, two percentage points beyond that of China's GDP. In 2006, the growth rate exceeded 12%. Sub-channel growth percolates along, with the Internet, digital television, new media (mobile) and advertising all growing rapidly and especially those industries/companies related to digital TV which are expected to be the core center of investment in 2007. This is all drawn from an interesting Chinese government "blue paper" report released last month by China's MII.

Noteworthy to mobile is the emergence of mobile "newsprint" offerings. Here's a synopsis of its development in China. When the web version of newspapers was first introduced, it looked like galley proofs with no layout and did not suit conventional reading habits. Subsequent PDF versions had newspaper format but were difficult to read. A breakthrough occured in February 2006, when the Zhejiang Ribao Newspaper Group and Peking University launched full digital versions for five newspapers.

The visual interface of these digital newspapers made reading Chinese characters much easier. Chinese read this "mobile newsprint" via digital networks without any trouble, the same way they read traditional newspapers. Much like I read the IHT on my HTC Dash. Then came mobile voice! In March 2006, Hefei Wanbao made use of iFlytek's intelligent digital voice technology to create China's first talking newspaper. Readers only need to download the required software to "listen in" to newspapers of the Hefei Wanbao Newspaper Group via voice calls. They may choose to listen to the news in male or female voice, Putonghua or Cantonese. They can even choose their background music.

The real breakthrough came from Guangdong provence through a Chinese software company, the Guangzhou Ribao Group launched a mobile e-newspaper in late 2006. What makes publishing this mobile e-newspaper attractive is that the price of the technical equipment is efficiently cheap (Rmb2,000 per unit appx. US$ 265), providing a low cost entry into the "New Media" channel. This mobile electronic version of Guangzhou Ribao has a current circulation of 20,000 copies per month.

Yangzi Wanbao launched China's first mobile newspaper in July 2001, but it was not very different from ordinary SMS text messages. Mobile phone newspapers became truly popular following the growth of multimedia messaging system (MMS) format, which makes it possible to read both text and graphics on the phone. In July 2004, Zhongguo Funu Bao (China Women's News) cooperated with China Mobile to provide the first mobile phone version to MMS users. The number of mobile phone newspapers soared in 2006, involving over 10 central newspapers, over 40 mainstream local newspapers and more than 20 newspaper groups.

China's broad newspaper industry has been a lackluster investment segment, with a decline in advertising growth. The plight of the newspaper advertising market has expanded with time, while readership has also been shrinking. The downward market turn in recent years has aroused the concern of both the newspaper industry and the academic community concerned about public civic awareness.

Since tradtional "print" readers have a history of seeing advertisements and newstories sharing a newsprint page, expansion into the mobiel advertising space should be an auspicious omen for mobile advertising opportunities in the context of mobile newspapers as well.

China's newsprint industry may well have found that mobile innovation will lead it to a richer future.

Comments

[Cellular Motorola Philippine Phone]

Wow! nice cellphone i like to have it.

reign