Mobile Social Nets and User-Generated Content Market to Reach $13.1 billion by 2011
The market for mobile communities and user generated content will be
worth US$13.1 billion by 2011, with photo and chat based services being
the top revenue generators, according
to a new report from Informa Telecoms and Media and the Mobile
Entertainment Forum (MEF).
Chat (SMS) services currently represent the largest segment of the mobile communities market. However, as increasing numbers of photo and video enabled devices enter the market, the volume of users uploading images or clips is expected to grow significantly. In 2006, 46 million users are expected to submit video clips to services such as SeeMeTV or YouTube from their mobile phone, rising to 198 million by 2011.
Adding mobility to the social
interaction demand generated by meteoric rise of MySpace, Bebo and YouTube represents
a huge opportunity for mobile operators, who will benefit from a
reduction in churn levels, as well as significant increases in data
traffic, according to the report. O2, the UK mobile phone giant, recently
announced that it was examining options for getting Bebo onto its
handsets, potentially emulating the US deal between Helio and MySpace.
