According to MIIT, China’s average monthly mobile data usage per mobile Internet user reached 122.8 Mb in 1H13, up 36.6% YoY. Data usage from mobile music and video, mobile gaming, and mobile literature increased 14.0%, 18.9%, and 28.7% from the end of 2012, respectively.
The mobile data usage in China grew >35% YoY to 123MB per sub per month. While the growth rate was robust, the overall usage levels still remain far below the average in Developed Markets (1-2GB) and even other EMs such as Malaysia and Thailand (250-500MB). This remains the key driver of our positive view on China Unicom and China Telecom.
China Unicom reported 278MB monthly data usage per 3G smartphone user per month, vs. 2012’s 256MB. In the 2Q13 conference call, management indicated two reasons for the relatively slow improvement. One reason was the lack of data-intensive applications. CU also believes that there is room for improvement in data packages, with potential launch of 1GB data plan at Rmb50 in the future. The company has also started to co-operate with OTT service providers such as Tencent and Sohu.