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China Mobile May Restructure Fetion to Fight back Weixin amid Slower Business

03-22 11:27 Caijing
The Chinese mobile operator is keen on developing Fetion, which is close to over-the-top (OTT) services like Weixin, into a most important integrated telecommunication product, according to a leaked document.

China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone operator, is planing a comeback by restructuring its instant SMS service against the increasing popular Weixin which has garnered over 300million users home and abroad.

The Chinese mobile operator is keen on developing Fetion, which is close to over-the-top (OTT) services like Weixin, into a most important integrated telecommunication product, according to a leaked document on a recent meeting held in China Mobile headquarter.

The document shows that the company is planning to make every China Mobile client a Fetion user through integrations with the company’s other products, as well as contact lists and expand user base by introducing favorable packages. 

Fetion, which could be used to send free instant messages to friends within contact lists, have suffered declining users during the two years after it was introduced in 2010, and the number of SMS messages sent by China Mobile users witnessed record low growth in 2012.

Meanwhile, Weixin enjoyed substantial user growth in 2012 and has quickly become a major communications and social platform for smartphone users in China, due to its innovative features and compelling user experience, said Tencent, a leading Internet company in China, in its Q4 earnings report released Wednesday.

Weixin Moments, a feature within Weixin which enables users to share experiences with their Weixin contact lists, enjoyed rapid user adoption.

Tencent is ready to extend its communications and social leadership from PC to smartphone via applications such as Wireless QQ and Weixin, and enrich user experience by integrating additional services into these applications.

The Internet company reported an increase of 54% in revenue in 2012 compared with the previous year while revenues from mobile & telecommunications value-added services rose 13.8% YoY.

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