Prosten Technology Holdings, whose search technology helps mobile-phone users search for music to download to handsets, said demand for its business will be boosted by the mainland introduction of third-generation phone networks, expected by the middle of next year at the latest.
'The wider the telecommunication bandwidth, the greater the demand for music search activity among handset users,' said chairman Dennis Yip Heon Wai, whose company is benefiting from its partnership with China Mobile, the country's largest mobile-phone operator. 'The mobile music search industry in China will grow very rapidly in coming years, following successful market growth in Japan and South Korea.'
Prosten is looking to the 3G network, which allows faster downloads of songs, video and other data, to help consolidate its recent profitability.
The GEM-board-listed company turned to a HK$580,000 profit for the three months to June from a loss of HK$7.7 million a year earlier after terminating all its traditional short message, ring-tone and wireless application protocol (WAP) businesses in the fourth quarter.
For the year to March, its net loss widened 26.7 per cent to HK$34.5 million from HK$27.2 million as sales fell 13 per cent to HK$51 million.
'There are 450 million mobile phone users in the mainland, only 100 million of whom are internet users. A relatively low internet penetration rate in China may help the mobile music search industry to grow.'