The report, commissioned by the European Commission DG Information Society, forecasts that the mobile digital content market in western Europe will rise to E18 billion over the next 4 years.
Currently the mobile market is worth E2 billion (2002), the report forecasts that this will rise to E18.9 billion in 2006 and whilst the current market is mostly made up of ring tones and icon downloads, the future mobile content market will be comprised of several content applications. By 2006, says Andersen, the most important revenue generating content-based applications will be games and news.
In 2005, the research forecasts that network usage revenues from content application will represent only 5% of operatorsÂ’ revenue, with voice services generating 57% and network usage revenues from other data applications (mostly messaging) generating 38% of total revenues.
Service fee revenues from content based applications are likely to generate only around 8% of content providersÂ’ total revenues.
“At face value, the value of content-based applications appears to be quite small for the industry,” says Jolyon Barker, head of Technology, Media and Communications in AndersenÂ’s business consulting practice. “However, the real value of mobile content applications lies elsewhere. Content applications drive the usage of other services and increase customer loyalty. Mobile content users tend to make more phone calls. Content providers will also find that content applications will act as a feeder for generating revenues from the sale of traditional media. For example, a newspaper is likely to see an increase in the sale of its print addition thanks to the delivery of news alerts to mobile users. ”
