Telecommunications giants have to adapt to changing market trends

THE THREE STATE-RUN TELECOMMUNICATIONS ENTERPRISES that have a monopoly of the industry have published their 2015 financial reports, which show they made a profit of 380 million yuan ($58 million) per day. An article on gmw.cn commented:

The profit looks significant, but a deeper look into the reports reveals some problems. China Mobile and China Unicom have seen their profits decline compared with 2014, while China Telecom, the only one that saw an increase in its profits, derived them mainly from its broadband services.

Traditional services such as phone calls and text messages are declining, while data services are replacing them as the biggest part of the cake. When WeChat, the most popular domestic online instant messaging app, emerged, all three giants condemned it for challenging their texting services. They would never have expected that data services would become their main source of profits today.