NEW YORK, May 11, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- The following is an article written by Maria Esposito, a freelance journalist:
Entertaining the Masses:
Providing multimedia entertainment and lifestyle content to sate a growing world appetite is big business; and nowhere is it becoming bigger business than in China's vast telecom market. This lust for technology goes hand-in-glove with the booming Chinese economy. Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC), said in a written speech to the International Monetary and Financial Committee, which the Chinese economy experienced sound development in 2003, with gross domestic product (GDP) growing by 9.1 percent over the previous year and per capita GDP reaching US$1,100.
The rise in the standard of living isn't only an urban phenomenon. According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, the per capita cash income of the country's rural residents increased by 97 yuan (US$11.70) to 834 yuan (US$100.50) during the first quarter of this year. Bureau spokesperson Zheng Jingping said that income growth for rural residents has been aided by the efforts of the central government. Initiatives like the "tax-for-fees" reform in rural areas have helped reduce the per capita taxes and fee burdens for rural residents; dropping it 2.2 yuan (27 US cents) or 36.3 percent during first quarter 2004 as compared with a year ago. This clearly puts more cash in the hands of Chinese consumers.
And a part of this increased revenue will certainly be earmarked for discretionary spending like entertainment, a fact that has not been lost on the management of Telecom Communications Inc. (OTCBB:TCOM). This China-based company does business through its subsidiary:
* IC Star MMS is a China-based local information and services affiliates network. It has contracted with more than 2000 websites and gathered all of its Internet and mobile phone users to be the online/offline members. ICStarMMS.com links entertainment and life style information to local communities across China, and is its largest local content affiliates website. * IC Star MMS has been exclusive contract with StarEastNet, StarEastNet is one of the first Chinese-language Internet media companies to provide multimedia entertainment and lifestyle content to the global Chinese community. They run the largest celebrity website portal in China, having contracts with more than 160 celebrities in greater China. Currently, StarEastNet produces and distributes original interactive programming through its network of vertically integrated entertainment portals. Their objective is to become the preeminent vertically integrated Internet content provider and a leading platform providing exclusive, innovative, and trend-setting entertainment content, products and services in Asia. * Telecom Communications, through its subsidiary, has also entered into strategic partnerships with 21cn.com, the largest Internet portal provider in the Southern China region and the overall fourth ranked Internet Portal provider; and with Linktone.com (Nasdaq:LTON) , the leading provider of both mobile Internet enabling technology and application services. Another important outcome of the Linktone.com partnership is that it allows Telecom Communications to capitalize on the favorable relationships Linktone.com has established with the main telecom services providers in China such as China Mobile and China Unicom. Linktone.com also has extensive experiences in the SMS, WAP and other value-added services that will assist Telecom Communications in expanding the line of products/services they offer.
What does all of this mean for Telecom's future? Well, for a company whose goal is to become the premiere provider of innovative and trend-setting entertainment content, products and services, it's already taken the first steps. Telecom has established its own entertainment brand with an in-house pool of recognizable stars, its gained entry into local communities across China through the largest local content affiliates website in the country, and its acquired the means to new technologies to build a more consumer-driven product line. With that kind of a business model in place, the $7.0 million in sales for fiscal 2003 is only the beginning of what Telecom Communications can achieve.
The article can be seen in its entirety at http://www.mediasights.com, a Marketshare Recovery, Inc. (OTCBB:MSRY) website.
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