• Movius Interactive Corp., a provider of messaging, collaboration and mobile media services, expects rising mainland sales to boost its Asia-Pacific revenue to about 30 percent of total sales within two years from the current 10 percent. The company sees great market demand for mobile instant messaging and video messaging services in China. Sales in the Americas accounted for about 55 percent of the company's total sales last year while sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa represented 35 percent of total sales. Revenue from traditional voice-mail and short-messaging solutions accounted for about 70 percent of the company’s sales while new applications accounted for the rest. Movius recently launched an interactive mobile advertising service that supports multichannel video mixing. According to researcher Frost & Sullivan, Movius held about 10 percent of the global market for voicemail and messaging services last year.
• European internet firm Babelgum, which operates a free-to-view global Web television network, plans to start broadcasting in the mainland next year with programs tailored to domestic requirements. According to the company, China is a very important market because of its massive internet penetration rate and it’s aiming to enter this market next year. The company will consider speaking with companies on possible strategic alliances to facilitate the Babelgum China platform.
• China's rapidly growing population of Internet users may have surpassed the U.S. last month to become the world's largest Internet user base. According to official estimates by government research group China Internet Network Information Center [CINIC] that are released every six months, the number of Internet users grew at an average of 6.1 million users per month in 2007. According to CINIC, the country's total internet population grew 53 percent to reach 210 million last year from 137 million in 2006. Internet usage in rural areas grew particularly fast, contributing 40 percent of the 73 million new internet users last year. In its own research, BDA China Ltd., a Beijing-based technology consulting firm, estimates that China has as many as 228.5 million Internet users, compared with 217.1 million in the U.S.
• BDA estimates that China's online advertising market reached US$1.3 billion in revenue in 2007, while U.S. Internet ad spending was expected to reach US$21.4 billion in the same period, according to research company eMarketer Inc. Though the two numbers aren't directly comparable, analysts agree the disparity of ratios of user numbers to advertising dollars is vast. BDA says the Internet makes up only about 5 percent of advertising spending in China compared with 10 percent in the U.S. But if China's economy continues to grow and China's young Internet users increasingly choose the Internet over traditional forms of entertainment, China is bound to catch up. BDA adds that advertising grows with the growth of the economy and media. In the next five years, BDA estimates that the number of Internet users in China will grow at a compounded annual rate of 18.5 percent, while the U.S. will grow at only 2.2 percent. By 2012, that would give China 590 million Internet users.
