China Mobile (CHL) has started a semi-secret beta test of its mspaces.net, a Web 2.0 product based on Internet and mobile phone platforms.
The mspaces.net website is quite similar with Google's iGoogle product and the personal portal of Yahoo, which covers many Web 2.0 functions, including RSS feeds and widget managements. Apart from the general functions, mspaces.net also provides 10 gigabytes of private space, which allows users to acquire functions such as a blog, photo album, phone book, SMS and MMS mailboxes. In addition, the mspaces.net is a combination of Internet and mobile network. It supports email box registration and mobile phone registration, but this function is currently only available to the mobile phones of Nokia and Motorola along with mobile phone products that based on the BORQS platform.
The mspaces.net is a part of China Mobile's establishment and testing of its mobile widget platform. In April 2008, China Mobile signed an agreement with Softbank and Vodafone in Beijing on establishing a Joint Innovation Lab to promote the development of new mobile technologies, applications and services. As an important part of this project, the Joint Innovation Lab would initially start the development of a mobile widgets platform.
At the beginning of 2008, China Mobile formally established its independent mobile Internet subsidiary. Those services, including Fetion, mobile advertising and its 139 email box service will all be introduced into this mobile Internet company. This might spell the end for any standalone mobile advertising businesses in China, as China Mobile seems intent on taking on this entire business itself.