Tom Online Becomes Market Leader - Misses Revenue Guidance

From CHINAdaily:

"Tom Online Inc said it had become the biggest wireless Internet provider in China thanks to continued growth, although the company's revenues "unexpectedly" fell short of its previous estimates.
The Beijing-based firm said yesterday that its revenues from wireless services like SMS (short messaging service) and multimedia messages, ringback tones, wireless access protocol (WAP) downloads, and interactive voice responses (IVR) reached US$33.4 million in the first quarter, overtaking the US$26.5 million in wireless revenues of NASDAQ-listed Sina Corp, the former market leader. "

"But despite Tom Online's revenue climb, the firm failed to reach its estimate of US$35.5-36.2 million for the quarter. The firm, backed by the richest man in China Li Ka-shing, recorded total revenues of US$35.3 million, a 36 per cent year-on-year increase and a 2 per cent rise over the previous quarter."

"We did not expect to fall short of our estimate until we saw the bills from China Mobile," said Feng (executive director and vice-president of sales and marketing) .
Wireless value-added service providers rely on the country's dominant Chinese cellular firm China Mobile to charge subscribers and then share revenues with mobile operators. "

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