Australian Mobile Content Market Still Struggling for Survival

A new report from Paul Budde Communications says that in 2006 and 2007 the Australian mobile content market saw significant increases in carrier portal services; however they are coming from a rather low level and are still well below the PSMS market. Traditional Premium SMS (PSMS) also showed growth, but that market is set to remain static, due to the impact of the Vodafone prepaid caps restricting access to PSMS. There is still much uncertainty about the future of the PSMS market.

It is also important to remember that close to 50% of all PSMS services is still text based: horoscopes, love predictions, etc.

True PSMS content is very popular in the following areas:

• Polyphonic tones - realtones starting to replace these where handsets are capable;
• Animated screensavers and wall papers also very popular. Most of this is being driven by TV and print advertising, with web based promotion on the increase;
• Chat / dating services are a strong second segment after personalisation;
• Marketing / votes and comps also remains strong in Australia - though by revenue as opposed to volume comparison is smaller than the first two sectors.

Music services remain a key growth market, with the music industry rapidly developing a whole range of new music services - both real tones and full track. Some full tracks may be already preloaded on phones and/or memory cards in some cases but activated and paid for by PSMS, or downloaded via PC or Bluetooth and activated paid for by PSMS.

Video based services are the largest new addition to the mobile content industry - both downloads (Girls and Goals) and uploads - (blogging apps). This market is set for rapid growth over this period - both via MMS and direct videocall type services.

Despite the new capped plans as well as the fractioned billing of content, demand remains high. The main problem remain the operators, in Europe they are tripping over each other to subtract value from the market by including in the capped plans, free videocalls, free Internet access and free multimedia services.

Despite this the industry is confidents it can find ways around these roadblocks. A strong demand has been created in the youth market for mobile content, and the right business eco-systems are in place to provide new services. As services extend their way across wider demographics the potential for mobile content remains strong.

New Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) models in Europe also point into the direction on better revenue sharing arrangements. It is expected that the market will move towards Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and event based billing rather than per message billing in 2007, as operate in Singapore, France and the UK. This will lead to a more flexible charging model - and a better customer experience.

Posted to the site on 20th August 2007