March 28, 2008

China Vows to Cut Down on Massive Mobile Spam

by Sean Leow (PSFK Shanghai) in Trends In Asia, Telecom, Advertising & Branding

Anyone who has a mobile phone in China knows how annoying it is to receive 2-3 spam messages a day from random numbers selling ringtones, touting financial pyramid schemes and even peddling house-call massages. For many spammers, if they can get a click-thru from just a tiny percentage of the 550+ million mobile phone subscribers, they have a viable business model.

For the last couple weeks, mobile spam has hit the front pages of Chinese newspapers as seven advertising companies including Nasdaq-listed Focus Media were discovered to have sent commercial messages to over 200 million subscribers without consent. Focus Media, who has been one of the runaway success stories of the advertising industry in China, reportedly possess private information of more than 200 million mobile users, which has enraged many in the Chinese media and public.

While China Mobile, the country’s largest mobile operator, and Focus Media have both apologized for the spam, the government is moving swiftly to impose legislation to protect consumers who have previously had no formal privacy protection.

[via Forbes]

4 Responses to “China Vows to Cut Down on Massive Mobile Spam”

Patrick Byers
Posted from: 216.9.19.15
March 31st, 2008 at 4:26 am

Here here. Responsible marketers are hurt every time a company or individual conducts business this way.

Good to see action is being taken.

Patrick Byers
The Responsible Marketing Blog
http://responsiblemarketing.com
Mobile Marketing Serves Up More Than Content » The Buzz Bin
Posted from: 64.13.232.29
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:42 am

[…] continues to catch up our technology with China and other countries, perhaps we should consider solutions for problems they are experiencing, so that we can preemptively strike out spam. by Larissa Fair | Internet Marketing […]
victor louis
Posted from: 124.125.227.120
April 6th, 2008 at 2:41 am

Anti spam webinar-“Spammers Vs Today’s spam filters”

Today’s spam filters are not accurate and spam volumes are increasing rapidly. This will cost $42 billion for US alone. Spammers are using more innovation technology to send spam mails & Today’s spam filters are blocking only 80% of spam mails.

Register for a complimentary Webinar conducted by Abaca and Ferris research to know more about the spammers behind the black market. To register please click the link below:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=LPFKkdkFwOYltiQZtM_2bttw_3d_3d
Innovative New Start-Ups Target the Chinese Mobile Market on PSFK
Posted from: 72.47.211.46
April 14th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

[…] Place: Daav.cn Daav is attacking a serious problem in the current Chinese mobile market that we have covered before– SMS Spam. They track your contact lists and usage behavior to build a personalized spam filter […]