| Chinese people have increasingly wished their family and friends a happy new year with a "red text message" as they celebrated the Spring Festival from Feb. 14 to Feb. 28.
Broadly speaking, "red text messages" are user-generated cell-phone text messages, Internet posts, video clips, and online animation whose content is healthy and inspiring.
Xi Guohua, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology, said recently "red text messages" are a counter force to Internet and cell-phone pornography.
The term "yellow text message" is widely used in China to describe text messages containing pornography.
When attending a workshop on Internet and cell-phone culture held earlier this month, Xi said, along with destroying cyber pornography, China has to nurture a healthy Internet environment.
"Red text messages will promote a healthy mainstream culture," Xi said.
"Red text messages" for the Spring Festival contain good wishes to the nation. People wish prosperity to the nation and happiness to their families.
A China Mobile subsidiary in south China's Guangdong province launched the "red text message" campaign in 2005 to create a harmonious society and generate new income.
Since then, 1.5 billion "red text messages" have been sent in Guangdong province.
Later, the campaign spread across China.
The text message content covers a wide spectrum of issues: from advocating social ethics, to inspiring people, and promotion of a low-carbon lifestyle.
China Mobile Guangdong provided an economic incentive to writers of red text messages: users whose uploaded text messages are circulated receive 50 percent of the download fees.
China Mobile Guangdong said that by the end of 2009, over 693 writers had been rewarded over 500 yuan. Some 380 writers had received over 1,000 yuan, while 85 had received more than 5,000 yuan and 27 had got more than 10,000.
Moreover, the best "red text messages" are additionally rewarded. For instance, in Chongqing Municipality, writers of the top 50 "red text messages" are rewarded 10 yuan as their user charge while the top three receive 100 yuan.
By the end of 2009, China had more than 730 million cell-phone subscribers and 384 million Internet users. On average, each person sends 550 text messages per year. |
