Innovation boosts Unicom profit

Source: Xinhua | 2017-04-24

CHINA Unicom witnessed a surge in net profit in the first quarter of this year, on the back of innovation efforts.

The company made 274 million yuan (US$40 million) net profit in the first three months, up 88.3 percent year on year, according to its first-quarter report released over the weekend.

Facing fierce competition, the Shanghai-listed company saw fast growth of its businesses such as cloud computing, video and Internet of Things, offsetting waning revenue from fixed-line voice business.

The company’s number of mobile phone subscribers rose by 2.44 million in the first quarter to 266 million, it said.

The combined assets of the firm shed 2.2 percent over the period to 603 billion yuan.