Telstra buys into Chinese mobile music

China M is a leading supplier of consumer mobile content serving 350,000 customers daily, while Sharp Point provides technical services for China Mobile's rapidly growing central mobile music platform. Telstra reportedly paid A$302 million (US$196.8 million) for the assets,

Telstra believes that pro forma revenues from China M and Sharp Point for fiscal 2009 will be around A$100m, and these acquisitions accelerate Telstra's plans to achieve A$1 billion from its Chinese media assets by 2013.

"Today we've added consumer mobile content and music to Telstra's online real estate, automotive and digital device businesses in China,” said Sol Trujillo, Telstra's CEO. “Our success with the Telstra Next G network shows that Telstra knows how to offer customers a compelling mobile data experience. We are now exporting that expertise to China.”

China has more than twice as many mobile subscribers as any other nation, though half of its citizens are yet to purchase mobile phones. 3G networks are only now being deployed in the country, and will be available later this year.