Article Excerpt:
TWST: What is Linktone?Mr. Sung: Linktone started in 1999 as a division of Intrinsic Computer Company. Linktone completed its IPO in March 2004 to list on the NASDAQ exchange. Linktone offers wireless value added services (WVAS) to mobile phone users in China. We offer our services based on stable revenue share relationships with the major mobile operators in China: China Mobile, China Unicom, China Netcom, and China Telecom. We are close partners with mobile operators in a win-win relationship. We currently offer wireless services in three main segments: SMS, audio-related, and the current next-generation services, called 2.5G. SMS is short messaging service or text messaging, which is easy to understand. In audio-related, we offer ring tones and ring back tones, as well as interactive voice response. In 2.5G, we offer multimedia messaging service, WAP, and Java games. For the upcoming 3G era, we will be offering more rich-media content such as video and sophisticated flash media products. Looking across the product line, the general rule is ' the more sophisticated the service is, the higher the ARPU or average revenue per user. Linktone is well known for its broad portfolio of products and services offered across the most number of mobile operators in China, creating an enormous consumer reach unique to Linktone.
TWST: Give us an idea of what the telecom market is today and how broad
the market opportunity is for your company. What's the competitive
landscape?
Mr. Sung: China currently has over 400 million cell phone users,
representing by far the largest cell phone user base in the world. In
addition, according to iResearch, an independent research and consulting
group, the number is expected to grow by about 50-60 million per year
until the end of 2008. The number of next generation 2.5G phone users
currently accounts for over 30% of the entire user base in China. It is
projected that next generation 2.5G phones will grow at a faster speed
than the cell phone user base in general. For 2005, the combined
wireless service providers' revenues in China reached around US$1.5
billion and the number is projected to almost triple to around US$4.3
billion by year 2008. In terms of size of the biggest companies in the
wireless service industry in China, Linktone has moved up fast and is
currently the third largest in China.
Tickers included in this excerpt: LTON
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