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CCID Consulting Says China's Mobile IM Market Will Reach 3.85 Billion Yuan in 2008

2007-05-30 16:05 1245

BEIJING, May 30 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- CCID Consulting, China's leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong, believes that with the saturation of the Internet IM market, mobile IM has become a new growth point for the market as a whole. Though still in its early stage, China's mobile IM market has nevertheless reached a size of 710 million Yuan, with 16 million users, thus showing good prospects for growth.

The trend of diversified market growth

1. China's mobile IM market will continue to grow fast. Because resources available to mobile phone users are not yet fully developed, there is notable user demand there. The number of mobile phone users has been growing stably. Many vendors including operators are optimistic about the future development of mobile IM. The year 2007 will become a year of full-scale growth for mobile IM. Growing cooperation between service providers will also facilitate this fast market growth.

2. Diversified services will be integrated into mobile IM products. Mobile IM is far from merely a communication tool. Users want to realize more Internet services. Because it is much more complicated to enter websites on mobile phones than on PCs, users very rarely access website-based services through their web addresses. At most, they store some websites in their mobile phone that they visit more often. The number of such websites is very small. Mobile IM products can fully allow users get more convenient Internet services. PICA has added blog, community and information services to its platform. In the future, this trend will be reflected on all products.

3. Mobile IM products will lead to a drastic increase in mobile data services. The integration of diversified services is bound to require diversified SPs to provide support, which will in turn push forward the overall growth of mobile data services. As operators gradually shift their focus of attention from voice services to data services, China's data services industry chain will gradually mature.

4. Terminal makers will become an important link in the industry chain. In the Internet IM field, IM products are based on operating systems (OS). In China, Microsoft basically dominates the PC OS market. As a result, PC terminal makers occupy a very low position in the IM industry chain. But the mobile IM field is different. Mobile IM products are based on mobile phone OS. Mobile phone operating systems are in the hands of many different mobile phone terminal makers. Consequently, mobile phone terminal makers have a notably higher position in the industry chain. As services providers promote their products, there will be a growing problem of compatibility between the mobile phone products and phones themselves. Mobile phone terminal makers will therefore come to the front stage of the mobile IM market.

5. The mobile IM market will overtake the Internet IM market. Currently in China, mobile phone users outnumber Internet users by almost 5 times. China's mobile Internet market has also gradually come onto a course of stabilized growth. Mobile phones now play a growing role in people's daily life. Mobile Internet-based value-added services have mushroomed. All this shows that mobile Internet services are more promising than the Internet, meaning that the mobile IM market has the potential to grow much faster than the Internet IM market. As operators increase their input and service providers continue to attach importance to user demand and experience and nurture users' habits of use with mobile IM products, the mobile IM market will have all the necessary conditions to overtake the Internet IM market.

6. There will be more Mobile IM applications in enterprises. Services providers should position themselves in the mobile IM market for the long term. Currently, some industries have expressed interest in mobile IM services showing that mobile IM possesses a competitive advantage to enterprise users. Mobile IM products are demand-oriented products. As enterprises gain a deepening understanding of mobile IM, mobile IM will surely enter a wide array of enterprise applications.

Market prospects look promising

As mobile IM products enter full commercial use in 2008 and as user numbers grow drastically, He Xiao, an analyst with CCID Consulting predicts that the mobile IM market will reach a growth peak in 2008, with its size expected to reach 3.85 billion Yuan. Following the fast growth in 2008, market growth will enter a period of adjustment in 2009 and slow down. Market size will then reach 7.04 billion Yuan. Benefiting from the adjustment in 2009, the market will once again enter a period of fast growth in 2010. It will gradually stabilize and mature in 2011.

For "Fig .1 Forecast for Size of China's Mobile IM Market, 2007-2011," please refer to http://www.ccidconsulting.com/upload_fr/07052901.jpg .

As for users, CCID Consulting forecasts that by the end of 2007 there will be 40 million mobile IM users in China. In the next 5 years, the number of new mobile IM users will continue to grow at a fast pace. In 2008, it will reach 100 million. In 2011, the figure will hit 638.4 million, gradually approaching the number of mobile phone users.

For "Fig .2 Forecast for Size of Mobile IM User Numbers in China, 2007-2011," please refer to http://www.ccidconsulting.com/upload_fr/07052902.jpg .

On the whole, despite the fact that operators firmly control the right of discourse, China's mobile IM market nevertheless looks promising.

About CCID Consulting

CCID Consulting Co., Ltd. (also known as CCID Consulting), the first Chinese consulting firm listed in the Growth Enterprise Market of the Stock Exchange (GEM) of Hong Kong (stock code: HK08235), is a direct affiliate of the China Center for Information Industry Development (hereinafter known as CCID Group). Headquartered in Beijing, CCID Consulting has so far set up branch offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Harbin, with over 300 professional consultants and industry experts. The Company's business scope has covered over 200 large- and medium-sized cities in China. Apart from home market development, CCID Consulting is establishing international cooperation links across the United States, the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, by setting up agents in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Italy and Russia, with the aim of going global.

Based on four major competitive areas of powerful data channels, industrial resources, intense knowledge and deep understanding of information technology, CCID Consulting provides customers with consulting, research and IT outsourcing services covering strategy planning, IT application, marketing strategy, human resources and information technology outsourcing. Our customers range from industrial users in IT, telecommunications, energy, finance, automobile, to government departments at all levels and diversified industrial parks.

CCID Consulting is committed to becoming the No. 1 brand for strategy consulting, the No. 1 consultant for enterprise management and the No. 1 expert in market research. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.ccidconsulting.com/default_e.asp .

For more information, please contact:

Grace Gao

CCID Consulting Co., Ltd.

Tel: +86-10-8855-9020

Email: gaojie@ccidconsulting.com

Source: CCID Consulting Co., Ltd.
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