Latest statistics from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) shows that the short message service in China hit a historical record in the first quarter of the year with the daily average quantity of SMS reaching 1.098 billion and daily average income exceeding CNY100 million.

MII's statistics show that SMS portfolio in the first quarter of the year reached 98.82 billion, an increase of 47% compared the same period of last year.

MII says the high number of messages is mainly attributed to the New Year and the Spring Festival holidays which both which fell in the first quarter. During this time, people send more short messages than usual.

At present, SMS has become one of the major income sources for domestic telecom operators. For example, SMS already accounts for 10% of the China Mobile's total business income in 2005.