BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese cellphone users sent a total of 304.6 billion short messages last year, a 300-fold increase over the figure for 2000, according to the Ministry of Information Industry of China.

    The short message busin ess has been booming in China over the past five years since 2000, when cellphone users sent over one billion pieces of message. The relevant figures obtained during the four years between 2001 and 2004 amounted to 18.9 billion, 90 billion, 137.1 billion and 217.7 billion, respectively, the ministry noted.

    The short message has undergone 13 years of development since the transmission of the first one as transmitted around the world from Great Britain in 1992.

    The people in China has been showing a growing preference for the short message, which has been turned out to be one of the means the Chinese people have employed to extend the lunar New Year's greetings to their relatives and friends. Enditem