Shutdown for a Gatekeeper of Telecom Gold

Similar technology assessments-for-investments are described in documents at other companies run by Zhang.

Service and content providers who wanted business on China Mobile's network platform had to go through the Sichuan Mobile Data Department and Mobile Music Base. We Think waltzed through the door through Zhang's connections at Sichuan Mobile.

Annual operating revenue rose to tens of millions of yuan by 2005, and in 2007 We Think reported 72.4 million yuan in revenue and net income totaling 27.1 million yuan.

These days, We Think has lost its sheen. Unpaid bills were found recently taped to the company's Beijing office gate, which is shut tight. Caixin noticed Zhang's name on one bill.

Another company registered at the address of We Think's Sichuan branch – Sichuan Heze Technology Co. Ltd. – is in the business of communications equipment consulting and equipment sales. Established in 2004, investors included Zhang, Li and Tan.

Tan was originally a director at Sichuan Television. He later opened an advertising company whose major clients were Sichuan Mobile and other telecom operators. Li and he were the shareholders.

Tan's main gig was an independent digital music support platform company for the Sichuan Mobile Music Base called Myoo Music Entertainment. He started it in 2005 and, with Li, bought the company in 2007 just as Sichuan Mobile Music Base was starting to provide mobile music services.

Myoo is currently near to launching an initial public offering on China's Growth Enterprise Market. It's already completed two rounds of fund-raising.
Wang Feng, an executive at Bond Advertising, said he invested more than 10 million yuan in Myoo. But the recent shakeup in the telecom world, the detention of Zhang, and the exposures of shady business ties linking Tan, Li and others has left him feeling uneasy about the investment.

Wang has good reason to be nervous. It appears the listing plan of Sichuan Mobile Music Base's most important service provider Myoo now hinges on the outcome of the cases against Zhang and the rest of the telecom insiders who found a way to the pot at the end of the rainbow.

1 yuan = 14 U.S. cents