BEIJING -- More than 200 billion mobile short messages disturbed Chinese people in the first half of 2013, according a recent report.

The report, issued by a platform established by Beijing-based websites for refuting rumors, analyzed almost 100 million junk messages, finding 59 percent of them to be advertisements.

In the first half of 2013, scam messages, which account for only 1.5 percent of the total junk, led to over 30 million yuan in losses.

The report found that the southern province of Guangdong is the major source of junk, with 25 percent originating there, followed by Beijing and provinces of Hunan, Zhejiang and Shaanxi.

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other economically developed regions are most heavily hit, with more than two junk messages per phone user per day.

Addressing the problem of junk is a long-term mission, which needs coordinated effort from telecom operators and communication equipment developers.

In other reports published by IT developers, junk sms messages are increasing quickly. Tencent, a major IT corporation and developer of instant online messaging service QQ, said a total of 356 million junk sms messages were reported by its mobile app users in the first half of 2013, 50 million more than in 2012.

Experts suggest protecting personal information and installing software to intercept junk.