What it will be, China's postal service hopes, is a convenient alternative for customers who use the Internet -- and a moneymaker for the government.
China Post, the official postal service for the world's most populous nation, said Thursday it will introduce a new service enabling people to write mail on their computers, send it to the post office over the Internet like e-mail, then have it delivered anywhere in China by human mail carrier.
Computer mailing services are already offered in some Chinese provinces and regions, including Beijing and Shanghai, according to a China Post spokesman who gave only his surname, Wang. He said the services will be extended to remaining provinces Monday.
There is a large potential market for computer-to-snail mail. According to government figures, mainland China had 33.7 million Internet users at the end of last year. In a country of 1.3 billion, that means only a tiny fraction has access to e-mail.
For now, China Post expects the service's main customers to be medium-sized and small companies and individual entrepreneurs.
It's a bit more costly than a normal letter, which now costs about 10 U.S. cents. With the new service, the first sheet will be about 24 cents and the next three will be 6 cents each. Letters will be limited to four pages, China Post said.
It said the post office will automatically print out the mail, put it in an envelope and send it on its way.
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