As David Riedel of Riedel Research Group suggests, “It is another case of content providers (CP) skipping over service providers (SP) to cooperate with the mobile operator directly.” Based on our latest research on wireless value-added SPs and the mobile music market in China, CPs such as Hunan Satellite TV (which hosts Super Voice Girls) can make up to 34% more in revenue by cutting SPs out of the value chain and working with the operators directly. Money talks, and when China Mobile (and China Unicom for that matter) make it progressively easier for CPs to work directly with them by building their own SP platforms, CPs will continue to walk away from SP partnerships and towards operator partnerships.
In addition to acquiring the rights to provide SMS voting for Super Voice Girls, China Mobile has also been active in building a platform for its own WVAS such as www.12530.com for ringtones and ringback tones, and Femoo for instant messaging services.
