Subscriber growth brings China Mobile strong profits

China Mobile saw its first-half profits rise 25% year-on-year to US$5 billion thanks to increased subscribers and strong growth in value-added services, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company, which is the listed arm of China's largest mobile telecom operator, revealed that its prepaid and contract subscribers totaled 332.4 million at the end of June, up from 274 million a year earlier. Many of these new customers came from rural areas and China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou said the company would continue to focus on rural expansion in the second half of the year. Revenue from value-added services such as mobile music, news and information services and instant messaging rose 36% to US$5.5 billion between January and June. It accounted for 25% of China Mobile's total revenue, 2.6 percentage points higher than in the same period last year.