I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article by Perry Wu on – The Decline and Plunge of SMS For China's Listed Companies. It gave an unbiased assessment of the Chinese Internet companies. It was very refreshing to read his article. I am curious to know where Tom Online fits in this comparison. I would apppreciate a brief comment if is feasible.
Keep up the good work!!
Regards,
Mark
Pittsburgh, USA
Hello Mark,
Thank you for your comments.
Tom.com is very much like Sohu, Sina, Netease, Linktone, and China.com. It can only pick up secondary revenue from mobile services (China Mobile pays Tom.com and China Mobile is the primary revenue recipient). There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it–Tom.com, like its competitors, must rely on the good will of China Mobile to pay the company in full and on time. Ande in the last year China Mobile has dropped service agreements with companies like eBay's Eachnet entity. Who's in charge here?!
In recent months Tom.com's CEO has said that SMS is nowhere near saturation because mobile handsets are still being sold. This is true. But, again, the value-added services for SMS are declining–many of the services in China are little more than publicity stunts that don't garner users and the others are being shown the door for bigger and better mobile Internet and web services. Peer-to-peer text messaging is growing, but Tom.com, China.com, Sohu.com and the others see none of this revenue.
I hope this answers your questions.
Thank you,
Editor
