China subscription data by
operator for February 2017
The following data for mobile
customers was reported on March 20th for the previous month of February (millions
of subscribers):
Total subs.; added Feb; 4G
subs.; added Feb
China Mobile: 853.698; 2.519; 558.603; 6.395
China Unicom: 265.624; 0.536; 116.113; 5.58
China Telecom: 218.520; 1.750; 131.710; 4.980
Total: 1,337.842; 4.805; 806.426; 16.959
Commentary
China Mobile’s share of total mobile
subscriptions in China at the end of February was 63.81%, but its share of new
Chinese mobile subscribers added in February was only 52.42%, so its overall
mobile share dropped in February though, bearing in mind additions were only
0.36% of the January 2017 base, not by very much.
China Mobile’s share of total
4G subscriptions at the end of February of 69.27% was 5.46 points higher than
its share of total mobile subscriptions, but its share of net 4G additions
during the month was only 37.71%, and given net 4G adds in February were 2.15%
of the January 2017 4G subscription base, that did have a meaningful impact,
reducing Mobile’s 4G share of 69.94% at the end of January by 0.67 points.
If that rate of share attrition
continued through 2017 then China Mobile’s 4G share would end up at about the
same share that it has of total subscriptions.
Fixed broadband subscribers for
February (millions):
Total subs; added Fe.; Total
2016; Feb vs trend.
China Mobile: 83.270; 2.691; 22.595; Above
average
China Unicom: 76.232; 0.860; 2.906; Above
average
China Telecom: 124.850; 0.820; 10.590; Average
Total: 284.352; 4.371; 36.091; Above
average
(NB: it appears China Unicom
may have made an adjustment to its historical numbers, or OND made a small
error, but the above numbers are up to date.)
Recent major announcements
related to the Chinese market or players
Huawei acquires 16.83% share in Indonesia’s seventh largest
mobile operator
On March 14thHuawei announced that,
as part of a debt restructuring operation by publicly-quoted Indonesian CDMA
technology-based fixed wireless operator Bakrie Telecom, a subsidiary of
Indonesia’s Bakrie conglomerate currently valued at IDR 1.84 trillion ($138
million) and serving 12 million customers, Huawei had taken a 16.83% market
share of the company. This is the country’s seventh largest mobile operator
with a market share of around 3.5% of the 350 million Indonesian wireless
subscriptions market.
(NB: rather than implying diversification
by Huawei, it seems more likely that its $23 million local investment is purely
tactical.)
Oppo to open new RMB 2bn R&D centre in Dongguan
On March 16th Digitimes Research
noted a Chinese-language Southern (Nanfang) Daily report that China-based
smartphone vendor Oppo (the world’s fourth largest smartphone vendor by units
and hot on the tail of No. 3 Huawei) was expected to begin construction of a
new R&D centre, costing RMB 2 billion ($289.29 million), in Changan Town,
Dongguan, Guangdong province at the end of 2017. The facility will include a
testing centre, software development centre and a mobile network R&D
centre, and is due to be ready in 2019.
(NB: Oppo has recently been
growing significantly faster globally than Huawei and notably in Q4 2016, in an
Indian market of 25.8 million smartphone units, according to IDC took fourth
place with an 8.6% market share, behind Samsung (25.1%), Xiaomi (10.7%)
and Lenovo (9.9%), but well ahead of
Huawei.)
Vivo to open RMB 2bn production unit in Changan
According to the same source as
above, the fifth largest smartphone company by units shipped, Vivo, which is
chasing Oppo as Oppo is chasing Huawei, plans to spend RMB 2bn, also in Changan
City, on a new production base with annual production capacity of 90 million
handsets, also due to be ready for commercial production in 2019 (in India in
Q4, Vivo had a 7.6% market share, close behind Oppo and well ahead of Huawei).
IBM with cloud partnership in China with 21 ViaNet signs new
cloud deal with Wanda
On March 21st IBM, which according
to the company’s CEO, Virginia Rometty, gets 22% of its annual sales from Asia Pacific,
including China, and already has a cloud partnership with Chinese data centre
specialist 21 ViaNet, signed an agreement to form a joint Chinese cloud development
company (Wanda Cloud Company) with the recently created Wanda Internet
Technology Group, a subsidiary of China’s Wanda Group. Wanda is a RMB 255
billion sales level Chinese and increasingly international conglomerate,
founded by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin that specialises in property
development, luxury hotels, cinemas, and is well known domestically for its
local landmark Wanda Plazas mixed retail and residential developments in over
100 Chinese cities.
This is a somewhat experimental pairing
given that the Wanda Group’s primary current focus is on international
expansion in property development and cultural activities such as film-making,
cinemas and sports sponsorship. According to Wanda’s website, by 2020 it aims
to become a world-class multinational corporation with assets of $200 billion,
market capitalisation of $200 billion, revenue of $100 billion and net profits
of $10 billion. Wanda’s Internet subsidiary was created in October 2016 by
spinning out several businesses from Wanda’s finance group, which operates
payment services and data centres. The new operation has a stated ambition to
become an IoT player. The new company will be competing with the cloud activities
of China’s existing Internet giants Alibaba, TenCent and Baidu, and other cloud
players including partnerships with Amazon and Microsoft. The advantage to IBM
is perhaps that it will be initially at least the dominant partner in the new
company. There has not been much news about IBM’s arrangement with 21 Vianet,
(announced in 2012 and extended for a further three years in October 2015),
which operates in 30 Chinese cities, but possibly is not as aggressive or
ambitious for expansion as IBM might wish. 21 Vianet also has an agreement with
Microsoft which may not suit IBM.
