The figures are a huge jump compared with the 800 million short messages sent over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, China United Telecommunications Corporation Ltd, the country's second largest mobile operator, sent more than one billion short messages, a record high.

"It is easy, fun, convenient and efficient to wish friends a happy new year via short messaging," said 25 year-old Zhou Liang, a Beijing resident.

"I can send messages from my phone while I am walking down the street -- a very simple and effective way to communicate," he added.

He said he sent about 40 short messages during the Lunar New Year.

Zhou was not alone. As a matter of fact, sending short messages has become the No 1 way Chinese people, especially the younger generation, sent their greetings during the holiday season.

Analysts believe the widespread use of short messaging services (SMS) is mainly due to low pricing and a growing number of mobile phone users in China.

According to China Mobile, one message costs just 0.1 (1.2 US cents) yuan and is free to receive, while a one-minute mobile call costs 0.6 yuan (7.2 US cents) prepaid and 0.4 yuan (4.8 US cents) on contract.

Multimedia messages, boasting data-rich images, graphics and sound, cost 0.9 yuan (10.8 US cents) each and 0.6 yuan during the promotional period.

Figures from the Ministry of Information Industry showed that by the end of last year, China had recruited more than 206.6 million mobile subscribers.

"The short messaging market's strong growth rate will definitely continue to increase this year," said Ye Bin, director of China Mobile's Data Services.

Figures indicated in early January that China mobile customers sent nearly 80 billion short messages in 2002, up from just 15.9 billion the year before.

After years of development, the popularity of messaging has become a revenue earner for operators and already turned around the fortunes of Chinese Internet portals.

Internet portals, such as Sina.com, Sohu.com and Netease.com, eager to switch to more solid ways of earning money after Internet advertising wells dried up, have offered jokes, odd messages and unique ring tones online in a bid to attract users.

"We will aim to improve the brisk year-on-year growth rate in 2003 and expand its higher-value multimedia messaging service (MMS) launched last October," Ye said.

(China Daily February 11, 2003)