In the first three quarters of 2019, the total number of mobile phone users of the three telecommunications companies in China, including China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, reached 1.598 billion, an increase of 3.3% according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China.

Among them, the number of 4G users was 1.264 billion, accounting for 79.1% of all mobile phone users, 4.7 percentage points higher than the end of the previous year.

The total number of mobile communication base stations reached 8.08 million, of which the total number of 4G base stations was 5.19 million, accounting for 64.2%.

By the end of September, the total number of fixed Internet broadband access users of the three telecommunications companies reached 450 million, a net increase of 42.48 million compared with the end of the previous year.

The number of fixed broadband Internet access users with a receiving rate of 100 Mbps and above reached 362 million, accounting for 80.5% of the total number of users, 10.2 percentage points higher than the end of the previous year.

The fixed Internet broadband access users with an access rate of more than 1000M nationwide reached 580,000 households.

Related: China overtook the U.S. as the largest smart speaker market in 2019

As of the end of September, the total number of IPTV (Internet TV) users reached 292 million, a net increase of 37.04 million compared with the end of the previous year.

In the first three quarters, the length of outgoing calls for mobile phones was 180.5 billion minutes, down 6.4% year-on-year. The decline was 1 percentage point higher than the end of the previous year, but narrowed by 0.4 percentage points from the first half of the year.

The call duration of fixed-line calls was 91.7 billion minutes. It was down 19.3% year-on-year.

Mobile SMS traffic and revenue both continued to grow. Driven by the popularity of services such as service login and identity authentication, the business volume and revenue of SMS services have kept growing.

In the first three quarters, China’s mobile SMS business volume increased by 40.8% year-on-year, and the mobile SMS business revenue reached 29.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%.

Pricing and practical features top factors for China smart device users’ purchase

The growth of 4G users in China outpaced 3G users in 2014 with 97.284 million new subscribers comparing to 83.644 million 3G new subscribers according to Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China.

China’s mobile internet data usage was 2.062G in 2014, an increase of 62.9%. A 4G subscriber on average used 205M data per month, an increase of 47.1%.

China mobile users sent much less number of SMS in 2014, 763.05 billion, down 14.4%. MMS growth was down 24.4% in 2014 while it grew by 23% in the previous year.

China phone users increased by 39.426 million to 1.536 billion, an increase of 2.6%. Mobile phone subscribers increased by 56.98 million to 1.286 billion with a penetration rate of 94.5%. The landline subscribers reached 249 million, down by 17.555 subscribers.

Also read: Half of China Internet Users to Use Tablet in 2015

China Mobile continued to experience a decline in its voice and SMS and MMS businesses, with a 0.3% decrease in the total voice usage and a 20.2% decrease in the SMS usage compared to the same period of last year. However, China Mobile substantially leveraged its first-mover advantages in 4G services and accelerated the migration of customers to 4G network.

As of 30 September 2014, China Mobile customers reached 799 million, among which 40.95 million were 4G customers.

Mobile data traffic for the first three quarters of 2014 increased by 98.6% compared to the same period of last year, which constituted the major driver of revenue growth. Yet it experienced a further slowdown in revenue growth and the operating revenue reached RMB481.2 billion, representing an increase of 3.9% compared to the same period of last year.

China will overtake USA as the number one LTE market in terms of LTE smartphone sales in the second half of 2014, according to Counterpoint Research.

China Mobile Financial Data

China Mobile Operating Data

Continue reading: China Mobile App Distribution Channels Market Share

Source: China Mobile

Ericsson Consumer Lab published Chinese city telecom 2013 report, according to which China mobile broadband had become daily life necessity, more than 70% Chinese smartphone users surfed mobile internet in public transportation. App based mobile broadband services would cover every aspects of city life, improving city life satisfactory.

Besides, Chinese consumers had less experience of mobile broadband service than phone call. While the mobile broadband service user experience laid a huge impact on total user satisfactory degree, unsatisfied consumers possible drop-out rate was five times higher than satisfied consumers.

Consumers’ need for mobile broadband had been increasing, 60% said mobile could offer information they needed instantly; 51% consumers admitted that mobile could offer entertainments and they would feel bored without mobile; besides, 53% consumers regarded being reached at any time anywhere as very important.

Internet access was not limited to home and office anymore. More than half consumers gained internet access outdoor, smartphone users could use data plan at any occasion. Data showed that average daily time spent on transportation in big cities was 1.5 hours, smartphone played a crucial role in filling this period. 70% users would browse webpages on mobile, and social networks. And two thirds of smartphone users would communicate with family and friends on mobile.

In the chart above, it showed the global average and Chinese Wi-Fi and mobile broadband household penetration rate. Chinese mobile broadband household penetration rate increased 64% in two years, from 14% in 2011 to 23% in 2013. And Chinese Wi-Fi household penetration rate increased 600% within two years.

Consumers attitudes toward data plan changed over time, 18% Chinese consumers thought data plan could replace phone call and SMS. Among smartphone users, the percentage reached almost 30%. In the past year, 80% consumers used IM service everyday, more than one thirds of consumers reduced SMS usage.

The survey of Chinese mobile broadband satisfactory showed that price to be the biggest barrier, 69% smartphone users said that data plan price was still expensive. Call quality satisfactory degree surpassed mobile broadband speed, and customized service was the third most concerned aspect.

The Coming of Smartphone Age

According to an article published in the Fiscal Times, China’s Smartphone Boom Has Huge Global Impact, the number of Chinese smartphone usage was 330 million, surpassed the total mobile usage number in the U.S.. Experian expected the number would increase to 500 million by the end of 2013.

Mobile services and apps grow along with smartphone users. Tencent’s popular mobile app Wechat had about 400 million users; Baidu and Alibaba both strengthened their mobile app functions.

Most Chinese smartphone users access Internet via mobile, no matter in cities or rural regions, providing a great potential channel for marketing.

However, although China has the highest smartphone penetration, mobile marketing and mobile business haven’t reached their peak yet. Marketers have to improve their understanding of mobile marketing strategies.

Mobile Marketing Adoption in China

Experian investigated 321 enterprises in a variety of industries, and its result showed that China didn’t fall behind to Australia, Singapore and other countries. But enterprises which adopted mobile marketing were not even half of the total. In comparison, 65% of Hongkong enterprises tried mobile marketing, while only 36% of Chinese enterprises tried. Merely 16% enterprises integrated mobile marketing into its strategies.

Mobile marketing seems promising in China, for 92% enterprises agreed that mobile is the most effective way for consumers to know brands.

New Challenge for All Enterprises: Integrated Marketing

The most popular strategies adopted are SMS and MMS, which can reach to consumers directly and quickly. Although mobile marketing grows fast, traditional advertising strategies are still considered to be important. Actually, all enterprises investigated thought all marketing channels became more and more important. Enterprises face challenges not only from integrating mobile marketing into traditional marketing strategies, but also how to analyze data collected from different channels.

Despite that enterprises gradually have learned to collect meaningful data, improvements are still needed. Enterprises need to select data in various ways from a big data pool, getting insights into future consumer behavior.

When asked about top three most popular marketing channels, mail came to number one. 66% of enterprises adopted mail, which demonstrated this traditional strategy would not die out yet. Luxury brands and Real estate enterprises used mail mainly in consideration of reputation. SMS was the second most popular channel, with 61% adoption rate. And email came to the third with 34% rate.

More and more consumers use smartphone to locate shops and compare prices. Some enterprise took advantage and encouraged consumers to go shopping and online shopping, such as L’oreal. But consumers have initiative in how to get access to brands and are in dominant position.

Merely 16% of enterprises integrated mobile marketing to its strategies, 21% tried and 31% made mobile marketing strategies. China mobile marketing wasn’t well developed.

What’s fascinating is, 34% of enterprises which adopted mobile marketing made 11%-25% revenue via mobile channel and 27% of which made 26%-50% revenue. It was almost the same as Hongkong, the reason maybe Chinese used mobile to access Internet more than laptop.

Enterprises have optimistic expectations for revenue driven by mobile marketing. Almost 90% agreed mobile marketing is effective.

Mobile Marketing Strategies

The most common strategies in mobile marketing was obviously SMS, 71% adopted it. Followed by mobile business and mobile website.

Chinese mobile users got used to receiving promotion messages. Phone number was the most important consumer information collected, even more than email address. China banks would send messages with coupons or useful finance news, tips to customers to enhance user loyalty.

In the future, enterprises would probably adopt custom mobile app, mobile coupons and mobile email marketing strategies.