LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2012: China Mobile president Li Yue used his keynote address at Congress this morning to talk up the importance of its Mobile Market apps platform to enable the world’s largest mobile operator to reach out into new market segments.
 
Launched in 2009, Li Yue said that Mobile Market had “fundamentally changed our revenue model” as China Mobile embraces what he called a “smart channel” strategy. “Mobile Market has become a crucial platform for us both as a cooperation platform and a way to sell to users,” he said. 
 
China Mobile now has 169 million of its 655 million subscribers registered on the platform. Some 115,000 apps are available on the store and Li Yue said that it had clocked up 670 million downloads to date. “Compared with Apple we have a long way to go, but it shows the potential,” he added. “We are the gateway for selling services in the Chinese market.”
 
But it’s not just about selling apps. Li Yue said the platform was also using enabling services such as a job creation scheme for college graduates, which is live across 2,000 universities with 3.7 million registered users.
 
Sharing the stage with Li Yue, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega also outlined how the US operator was reaching out to apps developers. “We need to embrace developers and treat them like our customers,” he said. “We not waiting for developers to come to us – we‘re going to them.”
 
To this end, de la Vega cited the AT&T Foundry developer centres up and running in California, Texas and Israel.