China Unicom (CHU.NYSE, 600050.SH, 0762.HK) saw net profit fall 62% year-on-year in the first half of 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported. The country’s second largest mobile operator by subscribers said that the slump was due to the high marketing costs necessary to promote its 3G devices. It also faced increased competition from China Mobile (CHL.NYSE, 0941.HK), which reported a 4% net profit increase for the same period. China Unicom said it plans to step up efforts to capture the 3G market, for which average revenue per user in the first half was US$19.7 million. Tong Jilu, China Unicom’s CFO, said that the firm’s "profitability will gradually improve with the growth of our 3G business." China Unicom, which services Apple’s iPhone in China, has 7.56 million 3G customers, second only to China Mobile’s 10.46 million.
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