More than six billion text messages were sent by mobile phone over the Lunar New Year holiday, with the medium increasingly being seen on the mainland as an easy, affordable way to keep in touch.
But the popularity of the short-messaging system (SMS) has also left the authorities worried that it is being used to spread rumours and reactionary views.
The holiday messages reaped 500 million yuan (HK$471.8 million) in total revenue for China Mobile, China Unicom and their subcontractors, according to CCID Consulting, an arm of the Ministry of Information Industry.
Last year, telecom companies earned six billion yuan from 95 billion messages sent, up from a profit of 1.5 billion yuan on 15 billion messages in 2001.
The medium is popular because it costs only 15 fen to send a message, and technological advances have made them more colourful and easier to use, according to Wang De, a telecom consultant at CCID.
'Everybody's become an editor,' he said. 'They can make their own messages.'