Music and gaming revenues are expected to shoot up to 6%-8% in the mobile entertainment space this year.
With an increase in the usage of mobile handsets, music and gaming are considered as biggest drivers of entertainment in the mobile value added services (VAS) space. Sangeet Chowfla, chief strategy officer, Comviva said, ?Currently, 3%-4% of mobile VAS revenues are driven by music and gaming on mobile handsets, but this still has to cross many roadblocks. Today music has become the area of interest and innovation for the mobile industry.?
Telecom operators view mobile entertainment to have a strong base among the masses. According to sources, mobile entertainment contributes almost 62% of overall VAS, and at present VAS contributes 8%-10% of revenue for mobile operators. Jai Maroo, director, Shemaroo Entertainment said, ?Mobile as a medium increases the sheer reach and access to consumers both in terms of the number of screens and in terms of opportunity to consume. With the growth in user spend on mobile services, mobile entertainment is catching up. This makes media and entertainment available on mobile anytime, anywhere.?
Besides music and games, infotainment (contests, jokes, astronomy and news) cricket, social networking sites are other services that still have to catch up with the customers.
Zubin Jimmy Dubash, AVP VAS, Tata Teleservices Limited said, ?At Tata Indicom mobile entertainment has seen a 35% -40% growth. Music enjoys largest market share in India?s mobile VAS market. Within this segment, regional music has seen a surge of almost 33% and infotainment has seen a good uptake of subscriptions services both in voice and SMS.? Most telecom operators are leveraging mobile music on VAS as it is one of the key revenue drivers for the industry with the value chain of operators, handset manufacturers, telecom equipment providers and content providers constantly innovating and enhancing the VAS bouquet.
Mobile games have also shown strong growth recently and are expected to become as big as mobile music. ?With a slew of different options such as Java, BREW, SMS-based or browser-based games, mobile gaming has evolved beyond recognition since Nokia launched ? Snake ? in 1997,? added Chowfla. The most popular games downloaded today in India is cricket, action games and bollywood games.
Dubash said, ?Gaming contributes to 4% of VAS revenues. Off late, a lot of internet giants are also capitalising on mobile entertainment to gain access to a captive user base to create not only a deeper connection with their users but also deliver a seamless user experience across platforms.?
With the launch of more viewer-friendly handsets, mobile video services are also expected to quickly gain popularity. It is estimated that in future mobile entertainment services will achieve the highest growth rates in areas such as social networking, video services and mobile TV.