Forecast: Mobile Gaming to Top $6.8B by 2013
By Jason Ankeny
The global mobile gaming market will exceed $6.8 billion by 2013, according to a new forecast issued by market research firm In-Stat. Among the 2,000 respondents queried by In-Stat, 29.5 percent report playing games on their mobile handsets, with 20 percent of gamers downloading games from Internet sites other than their mobile carrier's site.
While mobile gaming is already a billion-dollar industry in the U.S., In-Stat notes the segment faces significant challenges: "The mobile gaming development industry is highly fragmented due to the wide variety of mobile operating systems, available handsets, and lack of industry standardization," said analyst Jill Meyers in a prepared statement.
"This fragmentation has resulted in mobile developers and publishers making the difficult decision of spending finite resources developing games on the platforms they believe will have the best chance of success," he added.
Female Gaming on the Rise
Online games appeal to young girls, older women
Marketers interested in targeting teen girls and leading-edge baby boomers may want to look at online gaming sites.
The total female online gaming site audience was up 27% in August 2008 over August 2007, to nearly 43 million visitors. Growth was even faster among female gamers ages 12 to 24 and 55 to 64, according to comScore Media Metrix.
"With the increased interest in online gaming among the highly lucrative teenage girl and older female demographic segments, marketers who have been hesitant to transfer some of their ad spend to the gaming space may now be taking a second look," said Edward Hunter, director of gaming at comScore, in a statement.
Gaming has become nearly universal among all teens.
comScore said that fashion and dress-up sites and virtual worlds such as Neopets and Gaia Online helped the category grow in popularity among younger girls. More older women visited gaming sites because of partnerships between women's content portals and casual game sites, such as iVillage's partnership with Pogo.com games.
Read more - eMarketer
Ringback Tones Drive Mobile Premium Content Market,to $4.7B Global Market in 2012
Ringback tones are on track to become the most attractive mobile content category by 2012, according to new market research from MultiMedia Intelligence. With worldwide revenue nearly tripling to $4.7 Billion, ringback tones will fall just short of mobile gaming revenue in capturing the largest share of the mobile premium content market (not including mobile video and mobile TV).
Overall, the global retail market for mobile premium is projected to reach $29 billion by 2012, according to MultiMedia Intelligence. Developed markets, such as Japan and Korea, have seen dramatic growth in premium content, with some operators seeing data revenue exceed 30% of total service revenue. As key Asian markets continue to evolve, growth has shifted to Europe and then the Americas.
"Ringback tones are quickly becoming the 'Golden Child' of the mobile music market, due to a winning combination of consumer popularity, and minimal impact from DRM or piracy," according to Frank Dickson, Chief Research Officer with MultiMedia Intelligence. "The current leading mobile premium content category of realtones is already facing challenges Consumers increasingly are able to create their own ringtones. The price disparity compared to a full track download is also a growing factor. "
MultiMedia Intelligence also learned:
- Realtone ringtones are gently displacing polyphonic ringtones in all regional markets. Polyphonic ringtones are becoming antiquated as the cell phone evolves in to a fully realized multimedia device.
- Retail mobile music is nearly a mature market in South Korea, but an expanding market in Japan. By 2012, the mobile music market in Japan, for example, will be over 7 times the size of the mobile music market in South Korea.
- Streaming mobile music is growing; however, it does not yet have the market scale compared to other mobile music categories. Mobile games and adult content are continuing to grow, but at gradually slowing rates. [ABI Research]
Study: Worldwide Mobile Gaming Revenues Up
Fancy handsets aren't the only game to watch.
The iPhone 3G may be getting all the attention in the US, but mobile game publishers worldwide could see as much business from simpler phones and low-income users.
That is part of the thinking behind data released in June 2008 by Gartner. The research company predicted that mobile gaming revenues would reach $6.3 billion worldwide in 2011, up from $4.5 billion in 2008. Gartner also said that mobile gaming revenues were promising in areas that had low PC and game console penetration, and among both low- and high-income users.
"Mobile operators should target smartphone users with more-sophisticated mobile games and lower-income users with discounted or advertising-subsidized games, or even differentiated service offerings such as 'pay per game' in order to increase usage," said Jessica Ekholm, analyst at Gartner, in a statement.
Asia-Pacific is expected to remain the largest market for mobile games, with revenues predicted to reach $3.4 billion by 2011, up from $2.3 billion in 2008. The North American market is projected to grow to approximately $1.2 billion in 2011, up from $845 million in 2008.
The new worldwide projection for 2011 is 50% lower than what Gartner had announced in June 2007, and likely reflects ongoing economic concerns.
Read more - eMarketer
Gartner: Worldwide Mobile Gaming Revenue to Surpass $4.5 Billion in 2008
Worldwide mobile gaming revenue is on pace to total $4.5 billion in 2008, a 16.1 percent increase from 2007 revenue of $3.9 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. While mobile gaming revenue will continue to lag behind other value-added entertainment services - such as music and adult content - the market still has much potential.
"Although current consumer interest in, and usage of, mobile gaming is generally low, the potential for growth remains lucrative, with the market skewed toward lower-income segments, mobile workers and smartphone and personal digital assistant (PDA) users," said Tuong Huy Nguyen, principal analyst at Gartner.
"The fact that mobile gaming provides good value for the money is one reason for the healthy growth rate," Mr. Nguyen said. "For a relatively small sum, consumers can enjoy a game over and over again, which is particularly relevant in emerging economies where penetration of consoles and PCs is lower. Video games in their original versions (on PCs or consoles) represent a form of entertainment recognized across a wide population, while portable consoles have also taken the market a step towards gaming on a mobile device. Finally, game publishers and mobile operators are getting better at working together and becoming more active in the mobile gaming space."
Gartner predicts that mobile gaming revenue will experience a compound annual growth rate of 10.2 percent between 2007 and 2011 with worldwide end-user spending reaching $6.3 billion in 2011. Analysts said mobile operators and other game providers should build usage by offering game demos or advertising-funded games.
"Mobile operators must maximize customer profiles and devices by tailoring marketing to individual consumer segments," said Jessica Ekholm, principal analyst at Gartner. "These operators should target smartphone users with more-sophisticated mobile games and lower-income users with discounted or advertising-subsidized games, or even differentiated service offerings such as 'pay per game' in order to increase usage."
The Asia/Pacific region (including Japan) represents by far the largest market for mobile gaming, with end-user spending forecast to total $2.3 billion in 2008 and reach $3.4 billion by 2011. The mobile-game market has outshone the PC and console game market in the emerging territories of Asia largely because of the low penetration of PCs compared with that of mobile devices. India is expected to lead among Asian countries in terms of total mobile gaming revenue generated, with the 2007 figure at approximately $80 million. This is forecast to reach $450 million by 2012.
"Emerging market operators should make the most of the demand for mobile games and the low PC penetration in these regions and push game sales as a viable, albeit imperfect, lower-cost substitute to PC and console games," said Madhusudan Gupta, senior analyst at Gartner.
The mobile gaming market in Western Europe is expected to grow from $701 million in 2008 to $862 million by 2011. The North American market is projected to grow from $845 million to approximately $1.2 billion in 2011. The gap between North American and Western European mobile-gaming revenues is expected to widen over the forecast period as more users in North America adopt mobile data services in general.
"As voice revenues decline, mobile operators need to find ways to offset this downward trend, and mobile gaming has considerable growth potential," Mr. Nguyen said. "Mobile gaming has evolved from being a bundled freebie to a stand-alone value-added service, as well as a growing source of data revenue for operators and publishers alike. Increased consumer uptake and new players, business models and devices will help further this market in the future." /PR/FierceWireless
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