Social networking services will dominate a burgeoning market for mobile user-generated content, according to Juniper Research. Globally, end-user generated revenues from social networking, dating and personal content delivery services will increase from $572 million in 2007 to more than $5.7 billion in 2012, with social networking accounting for 50% of the total by the end of the forecast period.
“Even though social networking sites are in their infancy, the exponential growth experienced by a number of mobile service providers would seem to affirm that there is huge potential in this area. The key challenge now is for those providers to monetise that interest,” Dr Windsor Holden, the report’s author, said. “In these markets, the mobile phone is becoming the predominant means by which people access the internet. Hence, the overwhelming majority of online social networking will be conducted via the handset rather than the PC.”
Other findings from the report include:
- The number of active users of mobile social networking sites is expected to rise from 14m in 2007 to nearly 600m in 2012.
- Mobile dating and chatroom services currently account for 57% of user-generated revenues, although this proportion will fall to 21% by 2012 as other UGC services increase in popularity
- The volume of downloads from mobile personal content delivery sites such as SeeMeTV are expected to rise from less than 200m in 2007 to more than 9bn in 2012.
- Off-portal social networking sites will increasingly opt for free-to-consumer, ad-funded business models to gain visibility and market presence.
- High data charges remain a key hurdle to mass service adoption.
Originally posted on August 13, 2007 @ 4:23 pm