China Unicom set a bold target of double-digit gains in profitability for the full year, driven by growth in its private 5G and cloud businesses, as it revealed its performance for H1.

Net profit grew 13.1 per cent year-on-year to CNY12.4 billion ($1.7 billion) and operating revenue 8.8 per cent to CNY191.8 billion.

It added 47.5 million 5G package subscribers for a total of 232.4 million.

Net additions hit 5.3 million, a four-year high, taking its total mobile subscribers to 328 million.

Mobile ARPU was flat at CNY44.80.

Average month data usage rose 3.8 per cent to 13.8GB.

The number of customers using virtual private 5G networks exceeded 5,800, up from 2,014.

Its cloud business grew 36 per cent to CNY25.5 billion.

Industry internet revenue increased 16.5 per cent to CNY43 billion, accounting for more than a quarter of its service figure compared with 19 per cent in H1 2021.

IoT revenue rose 24 per cent to CNY5.4 billion, with connections up 32 per cent to 443 million.

Capex was 2.8 per cent lower at CNY27.6 billion, with funds for mobile networks declining from 37 per cent of the total In H1 2022 to 28 per cent.