Mobile Movies Emerge as Rising Industry

As 3G technology captures the mobile market, watching movies on cell phones is quickly gaining popularity around the world.

Insiders say this will be a rising industry in the future.

Our reporter Tingting has more.

More than 3,000 short movies from around the world competed in different categories at a recent mobile movie festival in Shenzhen, south China.

The films were all five-minutes-long and created for mobile phones.

Many at the festival said they would welcome mobile movie services.

"I think it's a good way for young directors to start, because it's very expensive to make a long movie. So they start with a short movie, they become more famous and successful, and they go on with longer versions."

"I think if the movie's quality can meet our demand, and we think it is worthwhile to watch it, we will pay for it."

Chen Weiming, President of the festival organizing committee, says mobile movies are more interactive and easier to circulate than traditional movies, and therefore can attract more viewers.

"3G has become a more and more mature platform for streaming media such as video. I think the mobile movie service of the future has the potential to generate a profit as great as hundreds of billions yuan, no less than the current short message service."

Chen says the short movies shown at the festival will also be presented at the Busan Asian Short Film Festival in South Korea and the Hong Kong Mobile Film Festival.

Tingting, CRI news.