Social networking services will dominate a burgeoning market for mobile user-generated content, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
Globally, end-user generated revenues from social networking, dating and personal content delivery services will increase from $572m in 2007 to more than $5.7bn in 2012, with social networking accounting for 50% of the total by the end of the forecast period.
Dr Windsor Holden, author of the report, said: “Even though social networking sites are in their infancy, the exponential growth experienced by a number of mobile service providers – in some cases achieved primarily through viral marketing – would seem to affirm that there is huge potential in this area. The key challenge now is for those providers to monetise that interest.”
Holden added that, in the medium term, the highest levels of growth could well be experienced in developing markets with limited fixed broadband access.
“In these markets, the mobile phone is becoming the predominant means by which people access the internet. Hence, the overwhelming majority of online social networking will be conducted via the handset rather than the PC.”
The report also found that the number of active users of mobile social networking sites is expected to rise from 14 million in 2007 to nearly 600m in 2012.
A report from In-Stat forecast that worldwide revenue from UGC content will increase from $80 million in 2006 to $1.6 billion in 2011 (see Global UGC Revenue Forecast To Grow).
A forecast from Screen Digest predicted that by 2010 more than half (55%) of all the video content consumed online in the US will be user generated, representing 44 billion video streams (see US User Generated Content To Grow).
Related Links
