[February 08, 2010] China to Outpace Japan, US in Mobile Animation Tweet BEIJING, Feb 08, 2010 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) -- Chen Weidong, board chairman of Tianjin Creator World Comic Co., Ltd. is among the first to try potato in the mobile animation field. His works Romance of the Three Kingdoms obtained download of 130,000 times within the two months of its trial reading. Chen says that China is likely to overtake Japan and the US in the mobile animation market, which is burgeoning and provides the same opportunity to each newcomer. Japanese spend three to four hours a day reading mobile animations when they go to work or take a break. The country has an annual animation output growth of 400% and more than 500 mobile animation Web sites. In 2009, Japan's domestic mobile animation market reached JPY 90 billion or CNY 6 billion. In the country, 80% animations are published through mobile phones and over 30% of the mobile phone users read animations through their handsets. In 2009, Uclick, a US packager and distributor of comics and word games, published animations in the form of mobile e-books and started operating its mobile animation operations called Gocomics, which transmit electronic animations to the mobile phones of readers. Currently, there are 55,000 customers subscribing for the service of Gocomics per month. Uclick changes the sizes of letterforms and images and make animations the same size as mobile phone screens, providing convenience for readers. Charged by Uclick's cooperators including Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), AT&T (NYSE: T) and Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S), customers are able to read about 20 hot animations like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). Mobile phones are more environmental-friendly as carriers for animations and mobile phone operators want to make full use of their products as storage terminals and media players, which both boost the growth of mobile animations. However, in China, the works of animation creators mostly cater to children and are not attractive to readers that are willing to pay for mobile animations. Because mobile phones are charged portable terminals, their users require short durations and concentrated contents for their reading. Meanwhile, mobile animations are also affected by piracy and need copyright protection. Hence, the China E-game Industry Association (CGIA) decides to bundle the functions of mobile phones with downloaded contents. At the end of last month, China's first public technology service platform for mobile animations started operation in Changsha City, Hunan Province, central China. The platform provides free promotion for the works of creators and protects their interests through online settlement in partnership with telecommunications operators and banks, greatly lowering the admittance threshold for mobile animations. Finally, the platform will build an industrial cluster integrating telecoms operators, content and service providers, mobile phone makers and readers, believed a top executive of its operator Talkweb Information System Co., Ltd. (USD 1 = CNY 6.83; USD 1 = JPY 89.36) Source: www.bjbusiness.com.cn (February 08, 2010) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]