Mobile video market set to explode

Peter Dinham
Sunday, 07 June 2009 16:01

IT Industry - Strategy

The mobile video market, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, is set to explode over the next six years, with a forecast 534 million users worldwide by 2014.

The number of users paying for access to mobile video services is expected to explode over the next six years to more than 534 million worldwide by 2014.

The forecast growth in users paying for access to mobile video services – or mobile net additions – is forecast to include a substantial proportion coming from emerging markets, taking subscriptions from 2.5 percent of the total market now to 8.5 percent in 2014, comprising paid video clips, music videos, TV episodes, TV programming and movies.

In its latest report on the adoption and revenue opportunities for mobile video services, Pyramid Research, the telecom research arm of Light Reading Communications Network, examines market environments, regulatory influences, and operator strategies through seven country case studies -Brazil, Chile, China, India, Italy, Japan, and the US.

According to Pyramid’s Derek Medlin, a senior analyst and author of the report, video is increasingly making its way into the mobile space across both developed and emerging markets, and he estimates that the global number of users paying for mobile video services directly delivered to their handsets will grow five-fold from 2008 to 2014, surpassing 534 million at the end of the period.

"This is equivalent to 8.5 percent of all mobile subscriptions, up from the current 2.5 percent level.”

Medlin says that the availability of improved devices and networks are contributing to a higher level of adoption and spending on mobile video services, and, he adds, says a substantial proportion of mobile net additions in the next five years will come from emerging markets, especially in Asia/Pacific, and will “drive a 37 percent growth in total mobile subscriptions from 2009 to 2014.”
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