China Telecom Flatlines

China Telecom reported flat service revenues for the first half of 2015, but total revenues slipped 0.6% year-on-year to 165 billion Chinese yuan (26 billion US dollars) on lower equipment sales. Although mobile voice revenue fell 17% year-on-year, mobile data revenue climbed 17%.

China Telecom also said it  increased its roster of 4G base stations by 140,000 to 320,000. source: China Telecom presentation

Mobile Sales Slide at China Unicom

China Unicom reported a 3.3% fall in operating revenues to 144.7 billion Chinese yuan (22.6 billion US dollars) in the first half of 2015. Mobile service revenues fell almost 10% year-on-year, following a slide in the number of mobile subscribers and a decline in average revenue per user. source: China Unicom presentation

OTT Services Crimp China Mobile

Buoyed by handset sales, China Mobile reported a 5% year-on-year rise in revenue to 340.7 billion Chinese yuan (53.4 billion US dollars) for the first half of 2015, but telecommunications service revenue rose only 0.5%. With China Mobile facing growing competition from over-the-top players, revenue from applications and information services grew just 9% to 34.6 billion yuan, while SMS and MMS revenue fell 12% to 16 billion yuan. source: China Mobile statement

Alibaba Sees Sales Slowdown

Alibaba, China's leading digital commerce broker, reported a 36% year-on-year rise in revenues to 20.25 billion Chinese yuan (3.27 billion US dollars) for the quarter ending June 30 (excluding the impact of its suspended online lottery business and the transfer of a loan business to Ant Financial). That represents a marked slowdown on the 45% growth it achieved in the year to March 31.

Alibaba said the gross merchandise value (GMV) transacted on its China retail marketplaces in the quarter ended June 30, 2015 was 673 billion yuan (109 billion dollars), an increase of 34% year-on-year.

Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group, said: “We are excited about our top strategic priorities, including internationalization, winning in mobile, expanding our ecosystem from cities to villages, and investing in core technologies that will propel our cloud computing business.” source: Alibaba statement

Tencent's Growth Rate Falls Back

Leading Chinese Internet company Tencent reported a 19% year-on-year rise in revenues to 23.43 billion Chinese yuan (3.8 billion US dollars) in the second quarter of 2015. Revenues rose 22% in the first quarter and 31% in 2014.

Still, Ma Huateng, CEO of Tencent, said: “During the second quarter of 2015, we sustained our leadership across our social, games and media platforms, while achieving another quarter of solid financial results. Operationally, we made notable progress across our portfolio of mobile utilities, with our mobile security solution, browser and app store moving into industry leadership positions. Strategically, we cultivated rapid growth of our mobile payment solutions, and built up a growing subscriber base for our premium reading, music and video services. We also reported rapid growth in online advertising revenue, benefiting from expanded social performance advertising and video advertising.” source: Tencent statement

Another Sales Surge at Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom reported a 5.7% year-on-year increase in revenues on an organic basis to 17.4 billion euros. In Germany, revenue was up 2.1% and in the U.S., sales were up 13.7%, as T-Mobile USA added 2.1 million new customers.

The group is responding by increasing spending. Investments in terms of cash capex, before mobile spectrum expenses, increased by 17% year-on-year to 2.6 billion euros in the second quarter of 2015, Deutsche Telekom reported. source: Deutsche Telekom statement