China Mobile to Complete Centralization of Mobile Music Operations
Ccidcom, 7/07/09
China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) has announced that as of January 1, 2010 it will begin centralizing its wireless music operations, storing all available color ringback tones in a music repository to be based in Sichuan. Provincial operators will not be allowed to offer any of their own color ringback tone content. The transition period will be from July 1 until the end of 2009, during which time provincial operators must not sign on to any new ringback tone partnerships or renew existing ones.
Editor's Note: China Mobile launched its central mobile music platform, operation of which was assigned to China Mobile subsidiary Sichuan Mobile, in 2006, with the idea that a centralized platform would allow for greater efficiency in working with both content providers and service providers. Prior to launch of the platform, for example, a content provider wishing to have its content featured nationwide on China Mobile's mobile network would have had to negotiate separate deals with each of the operator's 31 provincial branches. The centralized platform was also seen as a way to diminish the middle-man role of the wireless value-added service providers, which, in addition to marketing the content, also performed much of the leg work of negotiating with the provincial operators on behalf of the content providers and formatting the content for each of the 31 different provincial ringback tone platforms. In keeping with this objective, when China Mobile first launched its central music platform, it invited only a few select service providers (SPs) to participate, including Tom Online, Tencent, Sina, and, for search services, Baidu. However, so far China Mobile has continued to allow its provincial subsidiaries to maintain their existing provincial ringback tone platforms, each operating independently from the centralized platform.
Keywords: 0941.HK China Mobile CHL mobile music ringback tone wireless
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