MEF Confident that Mobile Content Will Profit, Even in Downturn

By Reporter Wireless and Mobile News on February 17, 2009 12:35 PM

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