Personalize your ringback tone if you don't want it to be dull. And 5 yuan a month will do. The Coloring Ring BackTone Service is a value-added service which is becoming extremely popular among mobile phone users in China. It has brought handsome profits to operators, and it's widely been predicted that it will be as popular as the short message service. Li Peichun takes a closer look.
These are some funny coloring ring back tones. As you have heard kid's voices have been used to make them funny. Classic or funny music is also adding the flavor of fun. Reports say more than 30 million mobile phone users, especially the young, have subscribed the service.
" I started using the service two months ago. I became fascinated about it immediately. I think it's a good idea to let my friends enjoy a funny or relaxing ringtone while waiting for me to answer the call. I will change the tone every month to keep it new and interesting. I even have different tones in the morning and the afternoon"
"My collegues all download tones. At the beginning I thought it was interesting."
The coloring ringback service started about 2 years ago but it is developing so rapidly that about 10 percent of mobile phone users in China are already keen users. Of the customers most are young people aged between 16 to 30. 5 yuan will enable you to choose from numerous funny dialogues and beautiful music. Compared to other mobile phone services like internet surfing, it is easier and much cheaper to do.
Some experts even say the fashionable service is leading the mobile phone and music economy that is generating 100 million yuan revenue a month for mobile phone service carriers.
A bold prediction says in two years time, about 80 percent of cell phone users will subscribe the service and the monthly revenue can reach a billion yuan.
But some other experts are not so optimistic about the development of the service. Gao Bing is a professor with the Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications.
"It is quite a new and popular thing. It seems that it will become more popular in the future but I think like other new popular services provided by the mobile business carrier, people's fancy on the service can not last long. Voice service is the main service of telecom companies and other profit added services are just additives. I am not so optimistic that the service revenue can reach a billion a month in 2007. We'd better not to make such a bold estimate."
Professor Gao further explained that in general more people will use the service. But remember, most are young people using the service, and fashion changes quickly.
Reproduction of text for non-commercial purposes is permitted
provided that both the source and author are acknowledged
and a notifying email
is sent to us.
Schedule
Producer: Yu Jie 
Webcast
