Telecommunication, Technology & Media

China - Foreign investors target China's pay TV market

Source: Channel News Asia, 01 November 2011

Foreign investors are keen to tap into China's rapidly growing pay TV market, with China boasting the most number of multi-channel subscribers in the world. The emergence of new media is also changing consumer demands, and industry watchers said the TV industry must adapt to these new trends.

In terms of subscribers, China has become the largest multi-channel market in the world, with an estimated 175 million subscribers last year. Market researcher SNL Kagan, expects China's sales this year to hit US$7.5 billion. This would mean China overtaking Japan as the largest multi-channel market in Asia by revenue and the 5th largest in the world.

India - India's annual mobile handsets demand to reach 350mn by 2020

Source: The Economic Times, 02 November 2011

Demand of mobile handsets in the country is expected to reach 350 million units per annum by 2020, says a study by industry body FICCI with market analyst firm Ernst and Young (E&Y). "India is the world's second-largest telecom market after China, with the total wireless subscriber base crossing 850 million at the end of June, 2011. By 2020, the handset demand is projected to reach 350 million a year," the study said.

The study says that government should create a sizeable export promotion fund for the telecom equipment and services export and handset exports from India may be included in bilateral trade agreements with emerging markets in regions such as South Asia, Africa, Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe.

South Korea - Tech-obsessed Koreans drive smartphone boom

Source: Channel News Asia, 02 November 2011

The number of smartphone subscribers hit 20.1 million late last week in a country of just under 49 million people - compared to 10 million in March this year and fewer than 500,000 only two years ago.

South Koreans got their first taste of Apple's iPhone only in November 2009, a year or two after the United States and Europe, when regulators dropped restrictions which had largely closed off the local market. With free wireless networks and cutting-edge gadgets widely available, users will likely number 30 million in the first half of 2012 and 40 million at the end of next year, said Lee Sang-Hak, director of the Korea Communications Commission's telecommunications policy planning division.

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