Worldwide mobile subscriber base to hit 6bn
There will be close to 6 billion mobile subscribers worldwide by the end of 2013, up from 3.9 billion by the end of 2008, according to a new forecast from Portio Research.
Asia Pacific will continue to be the largest contributor to the worldwide mobile subscriber base till 2013, said Portio.
Currently, China and India are leading in terms of subscriber growth and these two burgeoning markets have helped the Asia Pacific region to become the world mobile leader.
In 2008, subscribers of the Asia Pacific region formed nearly 44% of the worldwide subscriber base.
The worldwide mobile penetration level is expected to pass 62% by the end of this year and near 80% by the end of 2013, with emerging markets in Asia Pacific expected to contribute most to the incremental subscriber base until that year.
| Mobile Subscribers (In Millions) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009F | 2010F | 2011F | 2012F | 2013F |
| Europe | 823.0 | 912.1 | 974.4 | 1,009.5 | 1,034.5 | 1,054.6 | 1,070.7 | 1,083.7 |
| Asia Pacific | 1,070.7 | 1,381.8 | 1,709.4 | 1,987.8 | 2,249.6 | 2,487.6 | 2,701.5 | 2,890.7 |
| North America | 251.9 | 276.5 | 296.9 | 315.6 | 332.6 | 347.9 | 361.6 | 373.8 |
| Latin America | 304.1 | 374.2 | 436.0 | 487.4 | 536.7 | 581.9 | 623.0 | 659.9 |
| Africa and Middle East | 275.5 | 389.5 | 475.8 | 544.5 | 613.0 | 676.0 | 735.8 | 792.0 |
| Total | 2,725.2 | 3,334.3 | 3,892.5 | 4,344.8 | 4,766.4 | 5,148.0 | 5,492.6 | 5,800.1 |
Magna’s recent mobile forecast predicted that US mobile advertising will grow by 36% this year, rising from $169 million in 2008 to $229 million during the course of 2009.
Elsewhere, BIA’s Kelsey Group forecast that Western Europe mobile local search ad revenues will reach €1.4 billion by 2013.
It also predicts that mobile search advertising revenues in Western Europe will grow from €39 million in 2008 to €2.3 billion in 2013, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 125.4%.