Advanced Television

Mobile entertainment confident in face of downturn

February 19, 2009

From Colin Mann in London

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), the global trade association of the mobile entertainment industry has revealed findings from its first quarterly Business Confidence Index (BCI) for the $32 billion global mobile entertainment industry. Based on the findings, the industry is confident it will continue to grow despite the economic downturn. The respondents, MEF members, predicted an average revenue growth of 27 per cent in 2009.

The MEF BCI, compiled in collaboration with KPMG, is the first of its kind and was undertaken to gauge the confidence of the mobile entertainment industry and to highlight specific trends over time. Every quarter it surveys MEF members across the globe, representing the entire mobile entertainment value chain. The first Index found that 88 per cent of respondents anticipated that their company's headcount will grow or remain stable in the next quarter.

As well as being optimistic about the growth of the industry as a whole, the MEF BCI identified a number of areas within mobile entertainment, which are set to grow throughout 2009. The top five areas of growth were cited as: Social Networking; Music; Video; Games; Infotainment. The MEF BCI also reveals the spread of mobile entertainment revenues across the globe, with China and Central and South America being seen as hotspots over the next twelve months and respondents predicting growth in excess of 50 per cent in both regions.

MEF members were surveyed from across the mobile entertainment value chain, from operators to content owners, billing aggregators and service providers. MEF members were asked a total of fifteen questions relating to their confidence in the mobile entertainment value chain. Questions relating to investments plans, revenue, headcount and marketing decisions were asked alongside those about the confidence in different types of mobile content.

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