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Standing by copyrighted digital music for seven years in a market where only 1% of users are willing to pay for it sounds irrational, but an annual revenue of over CNY20 billion (USD3.21 billion) for three consecutive years proves it can be done. Zhu Hong, General Manager of Wireless Music Base for China Mobile, believes that the secrets to this success go beyond the operator’s unrivaled user base (having just passed 700 million). Continuous efforts in ecosystem & content integration, as well as value creation, must also be credited.
Wireless Music Base (WMB) is a branch of China Mobile that provides music services online, a field that spans telco, music, and the Internet itself. It directly cooperates with record labels and other copyright owners, and has provided legitimate music downloads since 2006, making China Mobile perhaps the most prominent commercial promoter of IPR protection and content integration in China. Supported by a robust central music platform, WMB has created an effective marketing & sales channel for upstream musicians. By leveraging its billing system, WMB charges for its music services through the user’s regular phone bill, an elegant solution to a major issue in the developing world. With a little luck, this will lead to the development of a complete ecosystem for legit digital music in China, led by the big telcos.
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