Chinese portals hit by ban on horoscope advertising..Mobile messaging!!!

Complete Story at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ft/20050208/bs_ft/6dbd152079c311d9ba2a00000e2511c8

Some excerpts...

China's biggest internet portal has warned that revenues and profits will suffer sharp sequential falls this quarter after its business was hit by surprise moves by the state broadcasting administration and the dominant state-owned mobile telecom operator.


Sohu.com this week unveiled results showing revenues actually fell in the fourth quarter of last year compared with the previous three months - and forecast a further decline in sales and profits for January to March 2005. Netease releases its results later this month.
Sina, the biggest of the portal trio, said it was seeking ways to reduce its dependence on mobile phone messaging services after being taken by surprise by recent actions by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) and operator China Mobile.


Sina is also suffering from moves by China Mobile, the country's biggest wireless telecoms operator, to change its billing process for multi-media message services (MMS). MMS can be much more elaborate than simple texting and are seen as a key source of future growth.
The billing change caused a "significant reduction in revenues" from MMS, Sina said, adding that further planned moves by China Mobile could help cut MMS revenues by half.