Page 150 - How China Is Winning the Tech Race

The next stop is a branch of the state-owned phone network China
Mobile to sign up for service. Here the line is about 20 people deep. I take a
number and wait to be called. When my turn finally comes, Summer helps me
order a card that is valid for three months and up to three hours of talk time,
all for $8. I insert my handy SIM (subscriber identity module) card, or
smartcard, that will function as the brains of my Nokia. Now I can make calls
locally in China and avoid roaming charges for international long distance on
the mobile phone I use in the United States. Great: Now I can do what the
locals do.
The next morning I’m off to meet a local Bloomberg news correspondent
for lunch. I have my Nokia in hand when she sends me a short-text message.
She’s running late. Not used to the miniature English-letter keyboard, I simply
type “OK.” Soon every contact I have in Beijing wants to SMS me. So much
for e-mail or voice mail, which still are more popular than SMS in the United
States.
Text messaging is all the rage. In China, credit goes in part to a two-year-
old mobile Internet service called PingCo that was invented by Chinese entre-
preneur Charles Wang. Using PingCo, you can send free messages with no
limits, assuming that the monster phone operator China Mobile doesn’t put
it out of business. If PingCo perseveres against that giant near monopoly, it
promises to be as popular as the Apple iPhone or Skype, an overnight inter-
national sensation with its free chat and text service over the Web in real time.
PingCo is the mobile version of Skype, one of the world’s first free Web 2.0
services over mobile phones, followed only by a handful of similar start-ups
worldwide. CEO Wang is ahead of the trends with his new invention. It helps
that he worked for two American companies in China.
PingCo, which is shorthand for Personal Information Next Generation,
or “ping,” as in “ping me” (“send me a message”), promises to be a killer
application for wireless communications. It could be the next new thing that
feeds consumers’ appetite for more. It also breeds addictive behavior.
PingCo is not just text messages but also mobile chat, games, and match-
making. Many of the basic services are free now, but PingCo is beginning to
charge for premium add-ons such as a next-generation dating service that lets
potential mates talk online before committing to a night out. Want to read an
e-book on a mobile phone? PingCo offers that too. For a monthly charge of
$1.30 or 2 cents per 1,000 words, subscribers can flip digitally through the

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