Overview of China's IM Market in First Half of 2007
BEIJING, Sept. 3 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- CCID Consulting, China's leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: HK08235), releases its article on the overview of China's IM market in first half of 2007.
Supported by mobile services, China's IM market grew fast in 2006. In 2007, as personal IM applications gradually matured, the market became further saturated. China's IM market has entered a period of adjustment. The growth of the market has leaned towards IM and enterprise applications. But, mobile and enterprise services have yet to experience large-scale growth. Overall market growth has slightly slowed down. In the first half of 2007, the IM market reached a size of 3.86 billion Yuan. By the end of 2007, the market is expected to reach 4.6 billion Yuan, and maintain a fast growth of 46.0%.
Fig. Size and Growth of China's IM Market, 2002-2007 http://www.ccidconsulting.com/upload/11900.jpg Source: CCID Consulting, July 2007
In the first half of 2007, the number of registered personal IM accounts in China topped 700 million, while the number of actual users exceeded 126 million, accounting for over 90% of the total number of netizens in the country. China has become the most developed personal IM market in the world. The market value of IM users in the country now tops the world. CCID Consulting forecasts that in the next few years China's personal IM market will enter a period of slow but stable growth. The formation of an oligarch market will further raise the entry threshold. Therefore, China's IM market will see a change in current trends in the future.
As the personal application field is gradually becoming more saturated, opening of new markets has become a necessary trend of IM development. The mobile Internet has naturally become a new business source for service providers. Currently, China Mobile has over 20 million users, thus a solid foundation for growth. China Mobile and China Unicom have seized the opportunity and joined in market competition.
In 2007, mobile IM products headed by Fetion and UM formally entered the market. In the next few years, China's mobile IM market will grow rapidly. The number of mobile IM users is expected to increase to 40 million at the end of the year from 16 million at the beginning of the year. The market will showcase features of diversified products, deepening cooperation and expanding value. The market is currently controlled by operators, hence new IM firms will find it difficult to enter the market.
Relatively speaking, enterprise IM applications will be the hotbed for new firms to grow in. There is a low rate of penetration of IM products among enterprises in China. International giants and domestic newcomers are at the same starting point. In addition, enterprise IM is very different from the 2 major markets of personal IM and mobile IM. Its penetration into enterprises will not have much involvement with other market giants, thus having a relatively stable growth environment. But in order to effectively serve enterprises, it has rather high technical barriers.
Review of hotspot events in China's IM market in the first half of 2007: -- In earl 2007, China Telecom, China Unicom and China Netcom successively put their mobile IM products into commercial use. -- In 2007, Q1, Tencent had almost 600 million registered users, with 250 million active accounts. -- In May 2007, PICA and MSN jointly expanded the mobile IM market. -- In July 2007, Dianji introduced enterprise versions of products to directly compete with the enterprise IM market, with IBM, Tencent and Microsoft. About CCID Consulting
CCID Consulting Co., Ltd. (also known as CCID Consulting), the first Chinese consulting firm listed in the Growth Enterprise Market of the Stock Exchange (GEM) of Hong Kong (stock code: HK08235), is a direct affiliate of the China Center for Information Industry Development (hereinafter known as CCID Group). Headquartered in Beijing, CCID Consulting has so far set up branch offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Harbin, with over 300 professional consultants and industry experts. The Company's business scope has covered over 200 large- and medium-sized cities in China. Apart from home market development, CCID Consulting is establishing international cooperation links across the United States, the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, by setting up agents in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Italy and Russia, with the aim of going global.
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