The mobile content and services market is expected to generate more than $340 billion in end-user service revenues in 2013, up from around $183 billion in 2008, according to new data from Informa Telecoms & Media.
The two most significant service categories for revenues in 2008 were mobile messaging and mobile Internet, which together contributed more than 80 percent of the total revenues.
In recent years, many new players have emerged in the mobile content and services value chain and numerous merger, acquisition and partnership activities have taken place. The traditional players have been joined by a slew of new companies and a significant list of players from other markets, including the likes of Google and Apple. Informa Telecoms & Media noted it is these companies that present the most credible threat to mobile operators and to the degree of control and influence they have over mobile subscribers.
“In the coming years, the area that will see the most activity and will make or break many players in the mobile content and services value chain is that of the distribution channels,” said Shailendra Pandey, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. “Off-portal (direct-to-consumer) mobile content distribution is becoming common in most developed markets, and in those where it isn’t, operators are under increasing pressure to open up their user base to third parties.”
The billing relationship operators have with subscribers, marks them apart from other companies, allowing them to exert significant levels of control over what content the majority of subscribers have access to.
However, research from Informa Telecoms & Media shows this picture is evolving as brand owners and media companies increasingly are looking to leverage the consumer loyalty they have developed through their years of market presence and invest in direct-to-consumer channels.