China Unicom has warned of a sharp fall in profit on lower mobile service revenue in the first quarter. Despite showing a recovery in the mobile market with net additions of 6.61 million subscribers, the company said mobile service revenue was down 1 percent year-on-year, at CNY 36.2 billion. Total revenue at the operator was CNY 60.8 billion, according to the preliminary report, an increase both year-on-year and versus Q4 2015.
However, net profit fell by around 85 percent to CNY 480 million, mainly due to a 16 percent rise in selling and marketing expenses and a 37 percent increase in network, operation and support expenses. China Unicom noted that this is still an improvement from the loss reported for Q4 2015. The company said it will intensify its “Focus Strategies”, of innovation and cooperation development to drive a turnaround in results.
