Unicom Builds Legitimacy with Sina Tie-Up 中国联通联手新浪

By newsdoug on June 15, 2011

Anyone who doubts that China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU) is rapidly posing a serious challenge to dominant mobile carrier China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) should look no further than the latest reports of a newly announced tie-up between Unicom and Sina (Nasdaq: SINA). (English article; Chinese article) The tie-up with Sina, China’s most popular Web portal, and Sina’s hugely popular Weibo microblogging service, is a huge endorsement for China’s number-two telco in the mobile 3G Internet space, where Unicom is fast stealing market share from China Mobile. Anyone living in China will have no problem understanding why Unicom is rising so fast. Mobile phone users constantly complain about the slowness and unreliability of China Mobile’s wireless Internet service, which is hamstrung by its government-mandated use of a problem-plagued homegrown 3G technology. Unicom, by compariso ... gets ringing endorsement from Sina n, operates a 3G mobile Internet system based on the world’s most popular standard, which is supported by plenty of well-proven handsets, including Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone, and efficient infrastructure networking equipment. Sina’s new tie-up, though probably not exclusive, marks a huge affirmation that China’s top Internet content provider sees Unicom as the leading the mobile Internet in China for at least the next couple of years. If its guess is correct, and I think there’s a good chance it will be, we should see Unicom steadily take share from China Mobile in the 3G space, and perhaps even surpass it by the end of next year.

Bottom line: Sina’s new mobile Internet tie-up with China Unicom is a huge endorsement for Unicom, which could surpass China Mobile in the 3G space by the end of next year.

仍然怀疑中国联通<0762.HK> <CHU.N>对行业龙头中国移动<0941.HK> <CHL.N>构成的挑战？看看联通与中国门户网站新浪<SINA.O>近日的联姻，疑虑就该打消了。联通与新浪在多个领域深度合作，包括时下热门的新浪微博衍生产品开发，这是对联通3G互联网业务的巨大支持。联通在3G领域迅速侵吞中国移动的市场份额。只要在中国生活，你就会明白为何联通崛起速度如此之快。手机用户不断抱怨中国移动无线网络服务太慢、太不可靠。中移动受政府分配的本土3G标准掣肘，3G市场开发走得相当艰辛。而中国联通所用3G技术为全球通用标准，受到很多知名手机厂商的支持，包括苹果公司<AAPL.O>的iPhone在内，而且联通还拥有非常有效的基础网络设备。虽然此次与新浪联姻未必排他，但它标志着新浪将联通视为至少未来几年本国移动互联网市场的领头企业。如果猜测无误——我认为猜准的机率非常大——我们应该看到联通在3G领域稳步抢占中国移动的市场份额，甚至有望在明年年底超越後者。

一句话：新浪近日联手中国联通是对後者的巨大肯定，联通明年年底前有望在3G领域超过中国移动。

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