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China Mobile Grows in all Ventures

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone service provider, posted strong growth across the board in subscribers, revenue, net profit, new music service members and instant messaging users, the company reported Wednesday.

The company added 68.1 million new subscribers last year, nearly half from rural areas of China, executives said in a presentation. Subscriber growth rose 22.6 percent year-over-year, compared to growth of 22.1 percent a year earlier. The figures show China Mobile continues to grow at a heady pace, due in part to its focus on attracting more subscribers from rural areas more inland.

Subscribers totaled 369.34 million at the end of last year, and rose another 7.04 million in January to 376.38 million.

China Mobile's operating revenue rose 20.9 percent year-over-year to 356.96 billion Chinese renminbi (US$50.48 billion). Net profit increased 31.9 percent to 87.06 billion renminbi.

The company's mobile phone subscribers sent 502.7 billion SMSs (short message service) last year, up 42.3 percent compared to a year earlier.

The number of people subscribing to China Mobile's wireless music club rose to 66.88 million, an addition of approximately 50.75 million people last year. China Mobile says it has 250,000 songs available for users.

The number of people paying for subscriptions to mobile news rose to 23.55 million at the end of last year, up by 18.05 million.

The company's Fetionmobile instant message software also fared well, ending 2007 with 73.26 million users, up by more than 67 million compared to a year earlier. Fetion can be used on PCs as well as certain mobile phones, free of charge.

China Mobile plans to invest even more money this year to expand its network capacity and start 3G (third generation mobile telecommunications) services in the run-up to the Olympic Games this August in Beijing. China Mobile plans to spend 127.2 billion renminbi this year, up from 105.1 billion last year, the company reported.