China Mobile records 23 percent net profit growth

China's leading mobile phone operator, China Mobile, reported a 23.6 percent net profit rise last week, broadly in line with market expectations. The company put this down to strong customer growth and improved mobile data business. Net profit was up to Rmb15.81 billion from Rmb12.79 billion at the same time last year. Turnover grew by 20.6 percent to Rmb71.96 billion over the same period. The results come as China Mobile is seeing record levels of new subscribers signing up each month (see China Media Intelligence, Volume 6, Issue 7 (28/7/06)). The company added 13.1 million new subscribers in the second quarter to the end of June this year and saw its mobile data business up 37.1 percent year-on-year from Rmb22.56 billion to Rmb30.93 billion. Mobile data business also accounted for an increased 22.6 percent of total revenue up from 19.7 percent.

This is good news for the company which is looking to make up for falling average revenue per user (arpu) figures which fell to Rmb88 per month over the first two quarters of the year, down from Rmb90 at the end of 2005 and Rmb100 at the end of 2003. The company is also understood to be considering launching an instant messaging service on its current mobile platform.

CMI - 22/8/06