A new report from Juniper Research has found that revenues from mobile entertainment content and services are expected to increase by more than 15% this year from $33.2 billion to nearly $38.4 billion.
This continuing growth comes despite the backdrop of an uncertain economic climate, demonstrating both the relative robustness of the mobile content industry as a whole, and the opportunities in comparatively untapped segments such as mobile gambling.
The report found that the transition to a predominantly app store-led content delivery model had greatly benefitted smaller content developers, which have had their opportunity for end-user visibility dramatically increased. For example, in the mobile games segment, developers such as Rovio (with Angry Birds) and Lima Sky (Doodle Jump) have each achieved more than 10 million paid downloads.
In addition, a variety of larger digital content publishers and service providers have also profited from the greater levels of consumer awareness and usage of mobile content and applications:
· In the fast-growing mobile gambling segment, there has been a surge of activity on both browser-based applications and native smartphone apps.
· Mobile gambling has been given an additional fillip by deregulation of the European remote gambling laws.
· A number of US state lottery providers are considering the deployment of mobile lottery services in the medium term.
According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “While revenues from traditional staples of the mobile entertainment sector – such as ringtones and logos – have gone into steep decline over the past couple of years, the tremendous scaling up of activity in games, streamed music and social media has driven strong overall growth. Furthermore, as major retailers, brands and media organisations increasingly utilise mobile content to drive awareness of and engagement with their products, this growth will continue.”