Cell Phone SMS News in Chinese Newspaper Groups: A Case Study of Yunnan Daily Press Group

1. Cell Phone SMS News in Chinese Newspaper Groups:A Case Study of Yunnan Daily Press Group Liu Cheng & Axel BrunsCreative Industries FacultyQueensland University of Technology

2. 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

3. Rapid Growth in Users

4. 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)

5. The SMS Explosion

6. Market Development

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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