The Mobile Entertainment Forum published its first
quarterly Business Confidence Index (BCI) for the $32bn global mobile
entertainment industry. It shows the industry is confident it
will continue to grow despite the economic downturn. MEF members, predicted an average revenue growth of 27% in 2009.
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.
When
asked whether demand for mobile entertainment consumption would be
impacted by the credit crunch, over half of respondents said they saw
mobile entertainment as a 'feel good' affordable purchase and it would
therefore be resilient to the effects of the downturn.
The MEF BCI also reveals the spread of mobile entertainment revenues
across the globe, with China and Central & South America being seen
as hotspots over the next twelve months and respondents predicting
growth in excess of 50% in both regions.
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%
of respondents anticipated that their company's headcount will grow or
remain stable in the next quarter.
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.
The MEF BCI will be conducted on a quarterly basis moving forward. A
report on the findings of the first Business Confidence Index will be
soon available to MEF members to download at www.m-e-f.org