Greeting cards had their heyday in the late 1990s, when kids exchanged cards decorated with images of cartoon figures or pop stars. However, cell phones and the Internet have consigned such cards to the past for today's widely connected youngsters. Yu Donglei, 27, who works for a consultancy company in Beijing, said greeting cards were popular in his early school years, but, "the last greeting card I sent was to my junior middle school teacher in 2000". Now Yu uses his cell phone to send his new-year greetings and keep in touch. 

"When I send somebody a message, it comes to my mind how I met them and what I remember most about them. And it lets them know I care about them," said Yu.

This New Year, Yu sent SMS greetings to more than 500 people, addressing each recipient individually by name. 

"You may be very happy upon receiving a greeting card, but what if you receive a hundred of them?" said Yu who receives at least a hundred greeting messages during the Spring Festival period. 

Yang Xiaohan, 24, a graduate student at Renmin University, used to send greeting cards when he was in primary school, and he still keeps about 30 greeting cards he has received over the years from his classmates. But like Yu, he rarely sends a paper greeting card anymore. 

"Now I usually call somebody if I want to give them a holiday greeting. We can speak to each other and thus feel closer." 

Like Yu, when Yang does send an SMS greeting, he prefers to spend time composing a personalized message. 

"I send greeting messages using different words to different people, so I don't send many of them. My real friends won't mind it if I fail to greet them with a message." 

But Su Hao, a 25-year-old procurement staff member at a gift company in Beijing, usually copy and pastes pre-designed greeting messages, so "the greeting becomes a mere formality." 

"When I was young, I would write wishes on paper cards and exchange greetings with friends. But that was when pagers were a fad." 

However, there are still those who prefer the traditional greeting cards. 

Zhang Leyi is a 64-year-old retired piano teacher in Shanghai, and she still receives greeting cards from her students. 

"These cards are the most beautiful notes in the world," Zhang said. 

"I boxed them up and brought them with me to my new apartment."

She has received fewer greeting cards from her students in recent years, but though receiving calls and e-mails make her just as happy, she said there were some things she missed. 

"I can now use the Internet to send e-cards to my students, family and friends, which is very convenient. But I miss the pleasure of getting a card in the mailbox downstairs, and the fun we had when shopping for greeting cards in stores," Zhang said. 

But of course, it is the greeting card companies themselves that miss the good old days the most. 

The manager, surnamed Zhang, of the domestic marketing department at Guangdong Shenglu-Pacific Stationery, a Guangzhou-based greeting card company founded in 1997, said the popularity of online and SMS greetings had been a big blow to the company's business in the domestic market. 

"The company's annual card sales in the domestic market are now only 30 percent of what they were before the year 2000," said Zhang, adding that at present about 80 percent of the company's domestic market goes to companies and other organizations, who order batches of specialized greeting cards. 

"But our international sales have remained stable," he said. 

Jim Jordan, managing director of Pacific Greetings, the exclusive distributor for Hallmark Cards in Hong Kong and Singapore and the exclusive Hallmark greeting card licensee for China, admitted the Internet and mobile phones had had "a bit of an impact" on the card business in China. 

According to Jordan, the largest markets for greeting cards are those where people speak English, and Hong Kong and Singapore, where English is an official language. 

But the market in China is buoyed by specialized orders from companies and other organizations, said Jordan. 

"I'm not saying that the consumer market in China is not important, but our strategy right now is to focus more on corporate business." 

Wu Weibiao, general manager of Pacific Greetings (China), believes cultural difference play a big part in why Chinese people use greeting cards less. 

"They have a 'greeting card culture' in English-speaking countries, and people there are used to expressing their feelings through greeting cards. There are a variety of greeting cards for different occasions, such as birthdays, thank you, promotions, moving to a new home and weddings. But in China for celebrations such as weddings, people prefer red envelopes rather than cards." 

According to Wu, the Mid-Autumn Festival, Teacher's Day and Spring Festival are the peak periods for sales in the Chinese mainland. 

Wu said the company has established online greeting card stores to meet the changing trends. 

"However, I feel the business in China is getting warmer in recent years. More people are going back to the cards, something they can touch, feel and cherish," said Wu. 

Zhou Wenting contributed to this story.