The “Mobile Entertainment Forum” (MEF) is a trade group that represents leading companies throughout the entire mobile entertainment value chain, and publishes a “Business Confidence Index” (BCI) to analyse revenue and business trends in the $36bn mobile entertainment industry. As such, the group has released its latest BCI in which it predicts a 24% growth for mobile media and entertainment.
In Q3 2009, the MEF posted strong optimism with a 33% growth estimate, but has readjusted their estimates after taking into account the global recession and changes in the mobile ecosystem. “Since its launch in January 2009, the BCI has underlined the industry’s ability to weather the storm of the recession and leverage the new opportunities presented by the proliferation of smartphones and digital economy business models. With the global economic recovery underway, the first aggregate results of the Annual BCI point to a toughened industry which has readjusted growth predictions from 33% growth in Q2, down to 24%.”
The growth of mobile media relies heavily on the evolution of the supporting value chain, and the MEF has found that the proliferation of smartphones, the growing trend of mobile apps to distribute mobile content and other key aspects are driving the growth estimates they predict. Respondents now expect the value chain that develops, sells and delivers applications to account for 21% of revenue streams for the next quarter and the majority expect this to be incremental revenue. Considering applications stores only came about 18 months ago, this is a significant development, showing consumers’ willingness to embrace and consume mobile content.
Though optimism in terms of mobile media growth have had to be scaled back to more logical proportions, one thing’s for sure: the trends emerging in the mobile ecosystem will do nothing but foster the creation and distribution of mobile media in large scale.
