China has close to a 100 million WAP users presently and iResearch predicts  230 million WAP users  by 2008. WAP usage increased 157% in the past year and that trend is accelerating as China Mobile (the largest provider) continues to create a WAP friendly climate with reduction in usage and access costs.

iResearch states: 

"According to iResearch, China Mobile launched mobile phone WAP service since May 2000 and grew China WAP market in 2005. This year, China Mobile stared decreasing its service fee for WAP Internet access, which encourages the use of mobile Internet. WAP service, after accumulation of several years, finally breaks ice and enters its rapid expansion phase. The business gradually became the second dominant value added service after SMS service, but it still far behind users¡¯ original expectation and users are not accustomed to the use of wireless Internet. All of these are might caused by telecommunication fare, telecommunication content and integration of industrial chain "

The Mobile Technology Weblog agrees that this huge increase in WAP usage is largely attributed to lower service fee making it affordable for everyday users while Analysis International states China Mobile's WAP revenue increased around 32% in the Q4 2005 despite losses by almost every other major provider. That's good news at least for application developers and content providers.

Source: iResearch. 

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