The "thumb economy," represented by Chinese New Year greeting text messages, once again showcased its vitality during the 2009 Chinese New Year holiday.

During the Spring Festival holiday that lasted from Chinese New Year's eve to the sixth day of the new lunar year, the total number of text messages sent by mobile phones in China is expected to have exceeded 18 billion, according to estimates by the three telecommunications operators, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.

In addition, experts predict that with the commercial use of third generation (3G) mobile technology in some cities, and multimedia functions such as multimedia messaging and video being well received by some users, the new wave of telecommunication consumption will inevitably be highlighted in the Year of the Ox.

Based on historical statistics, the number of text messages sent through mobile phones during this year's Spring Festival will again see large growth. The number of mobile phone text messages sent during the Spring Festival in 2008 was around 17 billion, while the numbers in 2007, 2006 and 2005 were 15.2 billion, 12.6 billion and 11 billion respectively.

A rapid increase in the number of mobile phone users is the direct cause of the rising number of text messages. At the end of 2008, China recorded 641 million mobile phone users, up by 93.924 million from the end of the previous year. The penetration rate of mobile phones reached 48.5 percent. According to statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the number of text messages sent through mobile phones nationwide in 2008 was 699.67 billion, up by 18.2 percent year-on-year.