Information Services

In 2003 the information services of China Post continued to focus on the growth of traditional agent telecom service and the e-post business. China Post made great efforts to develop information services, conducted survey on new business including the call center and postal short message services and made preparations for the application of value-added telecom business license. It formulated detailed development plans and great achievements have been made. 

I. Agent Telecom Service 
By the end of 2003, the revenue of agent telecom service of China Post dropped by 0.40% on a year-on-year basis to RMB 1.041 billion yuan.

In 2003 China Post formulated the proposals for the development of agent telecom business, identified the business lines, responsible agencies, business development direction and major problems, raised detailed measures for business expansion and strengthened the statistics management. Following the market needs, post bureaus in all the provinces established the marketing system for agent telecom service. Cooperation in this field was also expanded. China Post signed the Cooperation Agreement with China Mobile, and by the end of 2003, 31 provinces and China Unicom, 28 provinces and China Mobile, 19 provinces and China Netcom, 26 provinces and China Telecom, 12 provinces and China Railcom, 2 provinces and China Satcom had signed and implemented cooperation agreements respectively.

II. E-Post Service
1．The 183 website. First, on-line subscription of newspapers and periodicals. From September to October 31, 2003, during the “First Sohu On-line Periodicals Festival”, the website processed 399 on-line orders involving 67 periodicals and covering 29 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). The State Post Bureau took the festival as an opportunity to launch the on-line subscription service nationwide since November 1, 2003. According to statistics, 7,369 types of newspapers and periodicals are subscripted on-line for the year 2004, among which there are 1,202 newspapers under 32 categories and 6,167 periodicals under 80 categories. Second, on-line shop. On April 1, 2003, on-line shop started operation on a trial basis in Beijing, Shanghai, Hunan, Guangdong and Sichuan. Third, on-line philatelic service. This service is now advancing steadily. 

2．Hybrid mail service. Since its operation on September 28, 2002, it has been running steadily. Technological development was enhanced to meet the needs of different customers. At present, the software has been developed from the standard version to the monthly, quarterly, annual and time-counting versions, and the colored postcards have been put into market as a pilot, which has helped to expand new markets.

3．Collection of the payments for Avon (China) on a commission basis. The test and operation of payment gateway system for Avon runs successfully. Meanwhile, the scheme of on-line payment for big logistics customers such as Avon was implemented, and the payment platform in Beijing was used to solve the on-line payment problems in provinces other than the pilot ones. China Post also explored actively the business of call center and signed cooperation agreement on the ticketing business with Hainan Airlines.