TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

Global Mobile Entertainment Market Revenues to Rise to $53.9 billion in 2016, a CAGR of 6.3%, According to New Research

“We think that the global mobile entertainment market will see significant growth over the next five years. Globally, we are expecting mobile entertainment revenue to rise from $39.6 billion in 2011 to $53.9 billion in 2016. Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2012 to 2016 will be 6.3%,” said Nizar Assanie, Vice President (Research) at IEMR. “Among different categories of mobile entertainment, we expect that Mobile Music will see the biggest growth in revenues over the next five years. We forecast that global mobile music revenues will increase from $9 billion in 2011 to $18 billion in 2016.”

Mobile-Ad Spending Projected to Reach $2.61B in 2012

Mobile-ad spending in the U.S. is rising at a much faster clip than previously forecast and is projected to grow 80% this year, to $2.61 billion. A new report by eMarketer estimates that mobile-ad spending reached $1.45 billion in 2011, up from $769.6 million in 2010, and that Google is getting more than half of the pie. The numbers are a significant upward revision from a previous projection that mobile would reach $1.8 billion this year, up from $1.2 billion in 2011.

Why 2012 Is the Year of Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising is coming of age. In many ways, it has been driven by the sheer force of the consumer’s insatiable appetite for all things mobile. More to the point, mobile is becoming a substantially more capable vehicle for driving brand awareness, affinity and purchases. Advertisers see this pattern taking shape, but there is still a disconnect between the avid mobile consumer and potential advertising dollars. This is caused by several factors…

Venture capital investment in mobile marketing and advertising skyrocketed in 2011: report

Venture capital investments in mobile marketing and advertising grew from $128 million in 2010 to $592 million in 2011, according to a new report from research investment bank Rutberg & Co. Investment levels in mobile commerce and payments companies was also up significantly, growing from $276 million to $558 million during the same period.

Mobile is a must-have for agencies in 2012

Many agencies failed to integrate mobile in a meaningful way in 2011, missing an important opportunity to organically build mobile practices. As a result, this year many will be scrambling to react to the growing demand for mobile services from brands which have seen a significant increase in mobile traffic. The growth in mobile penetration and use means agencies and brands can reach more consumers than ever before via mobile and use mobile to marketer an ever-growing array of products and services.

Nokia tops smartphone sales in India: Report

NEW DELHI: Total mobile handset shipments in India touched nearly 166 million units during the first eleven months of the 2011 calendar year, with Finnish handset maker Nokia accounting for a 30.7 per cent slice of the market, according to a CyberMedia Research report. The overall shipments included 14.4 million feature phones and 1.07 million smartphones, according to the India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review for November, 2011, released today by CyberMedia Research.

New Study Reveals 51% Growth in Californians Using Mobile Devices to Access Internet Within the Last Three Years

The number of Californians using their mobile device to access the Internet has significantly increased by 51 percent, to nearly 17.6 million people, in the last three years, according to a new report by the Center for Strategic Economic Research (CSER). Of California mobile users surveyed in the first quarter of 2011, 71.3 percent are accessing the Internet or apps using their mobile device. “In just three years, California has experienced a pronounced shift in how we use mobile devices. Just a short time ago, mobile devices were primarily used for phone conversations

US Mobile Market: Mobile Ad Spending to reach $2.61 billion in 2012

The rapid growth of mobile marketing spend in the US is projected to reach up to 80% this year 2012, an equivalent to $2.61 billion, according to eMarketer report. A notable figure of last year disclosed the impressive rise of mobile ad spending at $1.45 billion compared from the $769.6 million in 2010.

Two of the major contributing factors that led such an explosive growth are played by Google and Apple; with the former’s mobile search business and heightened interest in display inventory for both smartphones and tablets, and the latter’s widespread adoption of iPhones amounting to global sales of 37.04 million units in the last quarter of 2011.

“As mobile devices become a remote control for our lives, the more indispensable they become; the more they’re being used for search, to browse the web and use applications, and the more that drives up impressions and overall activity,” eMarketer’s Analyst Noah Elkin said.

Mobile search and display will account a growth this year, to include spending on banner and rich-media ads; and video to rise. However, SMS, MMS, and P2P messaging are seen to drop at 12.2% from 19.6%.

Marketing consultant believes 2012 an exploding year for mobile marketing

Mobile marketing gets a nod in connecting with the consumer mass market, with marketing consulting firm saying this year will experience a significant growth in terms of “mobile marketing and mobile-related ad spending”.

Noting an average of 30% that US adults spent over mobile interaction last year, Winterberry Group, a marketing consulting company, said that mobile will increase by a whopping 50.2% to $1.8 billion in 2012. During a presentation to Direct Marketing Club of New York, the firm’s managing director explained that mobile marketing has grown in value with the prevalence of Smartphones, geolocation and increasingly tech-savvy consumers. With such a notable change in terms of consumer market’s behavior, advertisers are advised to adopt quickly into it.

Direct and digital ad spending in the US reached a total of $215.9 billion in 2011, according to Winterberry report – 41.2% ($1.2 billion) of which came from mobile advertising. The insert media spending increased 12.5% to $0.9 billion in 2011, compared with 2010. Direct-response broadcast spending increased 7.6% to $25.4 billion year-over-year, while direct-response print increased 2% to $15.3 billion and teleservices spending increased 1.5% to $40.1 billion.

With this evolution seen to be exploding, strong data management platforms are vital to support vast new streams of information from mobile and digital channels; to include consumer behavior data, opt-in information, web analytics, contact and demographics information, transactional and loyalty records and public records.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

What the ad industry learnt from 2011 and how they foresee 2012

Years come and go but each year leaves behind its own learnings. 2011 was no different. Ad industry leaders share the lessons that they learnt and how they foresee the shape of things in 2012. Whenever a year draws to a close, it is not just about a new beginning but also about retrospection. The idea is to assess what could have been done differently, gather one’s forces anew and make a fresh…

How prepared is your advertising agency for 2012?

December has been a month of conversations, trying to make sense of the year ahead for advertising, media, digital and PR agencies. As the stock market gets hammered, as the anti-corruption movement ebbs and flows, and as the government is semi-paralysed, what will 2012 hold for all? In a nutshell, it’s not going to be an easy year – but there are still those who will gain and those who will hold their own. Here’s the year ahead, in

Analytics: The brains behind mobile marketing success

Mobile analytics in action. Look at a retailer such as Dick’s Sporting Goods that wants to drive in-store traffic and promote new merchandise. Knowing that someone works just a few blocks away and is headed out for his lunch break allows a carrier to deliver relevant messaging directly to the device, marrying mobile data that it has with point-of-sale data that the store has on a customer’s brand preferences.

Pre-Roll, Mobile Top Video Ad Formats for 2012

Online video has reached critical mass among US internet viewers. eMarketer predicts 169 million people, or 71% of US internet users, will be watching online video each month by the end of 2012. Such a healthy, sizeable audience can’t help but capture advertiser attention. eMarketer estimates US online video ad spending (not all of which is placed against video) will enjoy an aggressive 40% year-over-year increase from 2011, topping $3.1 billion in 2012.

2012 Forecast: Mobile Marketing

Having been involved in the mobile and advertising industries for over two decades, I can say with confidence that 2011 was a banner year for the discipline. Over the past year, consumers have proven that the mobile phone has become an integral part of the shopping experience. This is creating a number of exciting new opportunities for marketers to reach consumers at multiple touchpoints throughout the buying process.

Advertising legend MAURICE SAATCHI celebrates the joy of simple ideas that changed the world

The ideas that have changed our lives most are often the simplest. Simple ideas enter the brain more quickly and stay there longer.  Winston Churchill was a great believer in simplicity. He liked to quote a letter by French mathematician Blaise Pascal that started: ‘I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.’ He knew that to achieve simplicity is very hard.

Mobile carriers: Five predictions for 2012

The biggest news for 2011 in this sector was AT&T’s $39 billion bid to buy T-Mobile. And when the deal was announced in March, AT&T seemed confident it could make it happen. So confident in fact, that it agreed to one of the biggest break-up fees ever. But as we all now know, regulators didn’t like AT&T’s plan and put a kibosh on its plans.

Samsung dominates mobile phone market

Samsung accounted for 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile handsets for three months ending November 11, according to research by ComScore. This translates into a slight market share increase of 0.3 percent. Apple came in fourth place behind LG and Motorola with 11.2 percent market share, though it gained the most market share over the period, increasing by 1.4 percent.

Mobile Marketing’s Crystal Ball: Predicting Trends for 2012

The past year has been a big one for smartphones and other mobile devices. In addition to achieving widespread adoption among U.S. consumers, the tools have transformed the way people shop, get information and interact with friends, family and brands. In a column for Search Engine Land, Matt Lawson predicts that mobile will undergo even more changes and developments in 2012. Mobile marketing is becoming a bigger focus in many ad agencies and is taking up a larger proportion of overall advertising budgets, yet it also creates many challenges for those in the industry, he notes.

ComScore: Android, iOS combine for 75% of U.S. smartphone market

Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android and Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS extended their dominance over the U.S. mobile market in November 2011 and now power a combined 75.6 percent of all smartphones nationwide according to new data published by digital research firm comScore.

Six Steps To Mobile Search Marketing Success

ADOTAS – Tablet and smart phone devices have forever changed the search marketing landscape, as the year of mobile has finally happened. Tablet sales were up 260 percent year-on-year during the first three quarters of 2011, according to PC World magazine, while IDC projected sales of more than 63 million tablets, including the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble’s Nook, in the fourth quarter. This technology shift is altering consumer search behavior and requires a different approach to marketing.

Nigeria to become dominant in Africa’s mobile payment market

With the commencement of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) cashless project, Nigeria is set to become a dominant player in Africa’s emerging mobile payments market, analysts have said. According to the industry analysts, about 20 million Nigerians are expected to be embraced into the formal banking system via mobile money over the next three years. In November, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had disclosed that 40 million mobile money users currently exist in Africa.

Mobile marketing and advertising budgets to increase in 2012

This year 2012, mobile advertising/marketing spend is largely seen to increase in the US market, according to Digital Marketer managing editor. One big factor that leads to said prediction is the rising sales of Smartphones in the region, giving a perfect indicator for advertisers to double up their efforts in reaching to the public consumers. In fact, according to recent Nielsen’s report, there are about 43% of Americans having Smartphones with them.

Last year’s overall sales volume on Smartphone reached up to $5 billion; and while it sounds a huge number, Digital Marketer said it represents only to an equivalent of 2% of the total online ecommerce market. Had it been lesser than that of 2% being on Smartphone, it could never have been an attractive market for advertisers.

According to Digital Marketer, a pragmatic approach to mobile marketing has been wise up until now, and that all signs are pointing directly to increases in mobile marketing and advertising budgets. Last year’s 0.9% of advertising dollars went to mobile marketing spent will be expected to improve at a bigger percentage for this year.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business


2012 Trends to Watch: Marketing

As customers increasingly embrace multichannel interactions, marketers will collaborate more across formerly siloed teams to ensure a consistent customer experience regardless of communication, device, or touchpoint. 2011 was a year of collaboration in marketing. Marketers worked more closely with their sales counterparts, partnered with IT to harness new technologies for customer engagement, and even joined forces across marketing silos to improve the multichannel customer experience.

Why Marketers May Finally Get on the Mobile Advertising Boat

While print media represents only 8% of consumer time spent, it accounts for 27% of marketers’ media spending. Mobile media, on the other hand, represents 8% of consume time, yet only .5% of marketers’ media spending. Why the disparity? I believe there are three reasons: 1) Mobile advertising has yet to show scalable reach that has a demonstrable ROI. The reach of print advertising is clearly known, and the way consumers interact with print ads has been well researched for decades.

Mobile Advertising and Marketing – 5th Edition: Mobile advertising to grow 15.2%

There are close to 6 billion active mobile subscriptions across the globe, which can be compared with about 2 billion Internet users. This underpins the vast potential of the mobile channel for advertising and marketing, being highly important for brands seeking to engage in communication with present and potential customers. Berg Insight estimates that the total value of the global mobile marketing and advertising market was € 2.61 billion in 2010, having experienced healthy growth throughout the financial crisis and the following recuperation. Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 36.9 percent, the market is forecasted to be worth € 17.2 billion in 2016 – corresponding to 15.2 percent of the total digital advertising market. Mobile advertising is at the same time predicted to account for 3.8 percent of the total global ad spend for all media.

US mobile ad expenditure more than doubles to $2.1 billion in 2011, Google dominates, according to IDC

According to estimates by IDC, US $2.1 billion was spent on mobile advertising in the US in 2011. That’s more than double the expenditure in 2010. The split between mobile search and mobile display advertising spend is roughly 70:30. This is part of the reason that IDC attributes a massive 70 percent market share to Google (IDC describes Google as a “near monopoly” in search), but IDC believes Google is the market leader in display advertising in the US also. No other rival mobile ad network has more than 5 percent market share. Number two to six are Millennial Media, Apple, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Jumptap. All other networks have less than 1 percent share of the US market.

Trends for 2012: Asia-Pacific

India’s mobile market will take its first steps toward long-overdue consolidation. The market is much too crowded, with 17 mobile licensees, leading to extreme price competition and erosion of margins. The regulator’s intention to reduce SMS interconnection and roaming charges might be the final catalyst driving consolidation. Pyramid Research has found that large and small markets alike tend toward a three-to-four nationwide operator competitive environment. We expect initial consolidation to take place between 3G and non-3G license holders or for operators to seek alliances to achieve nationwide coverage.

Emotional Connections Key to 2011’s Best-Liked TV Ads

The best-liked new TV ads of 2011 reflected the value of traditional ad elements such as strong creative, simple and engaging messaging, and a solid emotional connection, according to December 2011 analysis from Nielsen. The most-liked ad, with a “likeability” index of 231, was a Super Bowl spot for Volkswagen’s Passat, in which a boy dressed as Darth Vader believes he used “the force” to turn on a car. The index score of 231 means that among viewers, Volkswagen’s ad proved to be 131% better-liked than the average new commercial during the January 1 – November 30 period.

Branding Time: Are Marketers Missing the Moment?

Do you know where your customers are? Data, networks, and content are becoming more and more intertwined. As the number of screens people have in their lives continues to grow, and new platforms and services ask people to take new actions in their daily lives, there are heightened demands on all of us. It seems that life in the networked world is, in many ways, far more complex than what many futurists — assuming that technology would simplify things for us — had imagined for the year 2011.

How data will impact 2012 for brands, merchants

The recognition of the value of data and its role in driving effectiveness. We are beginning to see increasing moves to bring offline data into the online arena, as this type of data is trusted and has long been the backbone of delivering traditional offline marketing campaigns. This move towards amalgamation is especially evident from the larger brands, who want to use these same audience definitions to deliver their online activity. For them it gives them the confidence they are reaching exactly the same audience on and offline, fostering real multi-channel marketing.

Ad campaigns to increasingly target mobile devices

Mobile marketing is ranked among the top 5 media channels to acquire the increased marketing budgets from senior marketers in Australia. This impressive data came out after 365 senior marketing professionals were inquired about their predictions on marketing budgets for next year, in a recent annual survey conducted by the Australian Marketing Institute.

Campaigns aimed at the smaller screens of mobile phones or tablets will be expected to getting the biggest growth from organizations with smaller turnovers, retailers, non-profits, and professional services.

The survey is said to showing the potential of mobile marketing in the region, but emphasis regarding to medium’s usage shall be dealt carefully, it being seen as a highly personalized medium.

Meanwhile, the use of social media, online advertising, and direct marketing also continues to surge with 77% of marketers saying they’d increased their usage on said channels 3 years ago.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

Why Local Will Dominate Mobile Ad Spend

The biggest question I’ve received in the wake of a recent mobile advertising forecast, is why locally targeted ads will be so dominant. Specifically, BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Mobile Local Ad Revenue Forecast projects overall mobile ad spending to grow from $690 million last year to $4.86 billion in 2015 — steep but not surprising.

OZ Mobile Phone Market Set To Grow 127%

The Australian mobile services market will grow from around 29 million subscriptions this year to more than 35 million by June 2015, according to new research from Telsyte. A rise in bring-your-own-devices (BYOD) plans, along with SIMs covering multiple consumer devices and some 3 million machine-to-machine (M2M) mobile subscriptions will take Australia’s mobile services skyward, the market research firm forecasts. Australia already has one of the highest population-penetration rates of mobile handsets in the world and the total services in operation (SIOs) will grow from a population-penetration of 127 per cent in 2011 to almost 150 per cent in 2015 according to Telsyte’s Australian Mobile Services Market Study 2011-2015.

Nigerian brands begin journey on mobile marketing

Notwithstanding that Nigeria is the largest and fastest growing mobile market in Africa, with over 90 million mobile subscribers, marketers are yet to tap into the opportunity this platform presents. The question therefore is why brands should shy away from a huge marketing opportunity to grow profits, market share and sustain success in the market place. This challenge, according to mobile marketing experts is not far from lack of education of how the system operates and how to measure the results.

Research and Markets: 3Q11 Philippines Mobile Operator Forecast, 2011 – 2015: The Philippines to have 102 Million Connections in 2015 with 1 Company Taking 49% Market Share

Mobile Operator Forecast on the Philippines provides over 50 operational and financial metrics for the Philippines wireless market and is one of the best forecasts in the industry. We provide five-year forecasts at the operator level going out to 2015. We also provide quarterly historical and forecast data starting in 1Q2003 and ending in 2Q2013. Operators covered for the Philippines include: Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) (Smart Communications, Inc.), Globe Telecom, Inc., Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc. (Sun Cellular), Next Mobile Inc., and Extelcom (Express Telecommunication Co., Inc.). Our Mobile Operator Forecasts are updated quarterly and are available for one-time delivery or through regular updates.

Android, Samsung Maintain Top Mobile Market Spots

Android remained the top mobile phone platform in October, and even gained a few points. It looks like most of its growth came from RIM, the mobile market’s favorite whipping boy. Samsung also continued to be the largest U.S. phone maker, enjoying and contributing to the success of Google’s Android platform.

Mobile Banking Will Surpass 140m Users in Latin America by 2015

Pyramid Research estimates that around 18m users in Latin America use financial services from their mobile devices and that this number may rise to more than 140m by 2015, according to Jose Magana, Senior Analyst at Pyramid Research who discussed trends in mobile banking in a live webinar produced by TeleSemana recently.

Mobile ad spending soars with smartphones

Smartphones like the iPhone and Blackberry now dominate the soaring mobile advertising market as Australians reportedly become increasingly comfortable receiving ads on their mobile devices.

NZ climbs up mobile internet rankings

Greater market competition and availability of cheaper Smartphones has helped push New Zealand up mobile broadband rankings, says an analyst. New Zealand has climbed from 16th to 12th in the OECD in terms of wireless broadband penetration, based on rankings released this month. According to the organisation New Zealand has 53 mobile broadband or data subscriptions for every 100 people.

Mobile market competition reaching `cut-throat’ levels, says analyst

TORONTO – Nadir Mohamed, chief executive of Rogers Communications Inc., said Tuesday there has been no let up of the competitive intensity within the $18-billion mobile market, comments foreshadowing perhaps further erosion in the financial performance of the country’s largest wireless operator. Led by double-digit declines in mobile voice revenues, Rogers has experienced successive quarterly drops in the average monthly amount the company collects per user, or ARPU – the metric used by analysts and investors to gauge how well a carrier is doing.

Globe sees mobile data to drive growth

GLOBE Telecom Inc. is banking on the growth of its mobile data business to sustain momentum in the months ahead amid tight competition and shrinking wallet of subscribers. The cellular firm said on Tuesday that it continues to open up its mobile data services to a wider market with the launch of the widest range of mobile internet plans available for every need or lifestyle. The Ayala-controlled telecom firm offers bundled plans such as PowerSurf and SuperSurf which offer mobile browsing packages.

Indonesia’s Mobile Phone Shipments Jump 68 Percent in Q3

Mobile phone shipments in Indonesia experienced significant growth in the third quarter of 2011 according to a report released by International Data Corporation on Wednesday. IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile report showed that Indonesian phone shipments surpassed 12 million units in the third quarter, greater than the 10 million shipments made in second quarter. Third quarter growth represented a year-over-year growth of 68 percent.

Dubai company banking on profitable boom in mobile ads

A Dubai company has launched a mobile advertising network in response to what it claims is “huge demand” for marketing via smartphones. Plus7, which has been launched by the digital company Clique Media, hopes to cash in on a global mobile advertising industry worth an estimated US$2 billion (Dh7.34bn). Ashwin Salian, a co-founder of Clique, said the platform would “connect advertisers and publishers”. He added that he envisaged “huge demand” for mobile advertising in the region.

Indonesia: Mobile phone market at tremendous growth

The mobile phone market in Indonesia has accounted an unprecedented growth as number of mobile shipment in the third quarter takes a dramatic increase, having surpassed 12 million units from second quarter’s 10 million units set on record.

In an IDC report, said growth represented a year-to-year growth of 68%, in which one of the factors seen to have contributed such a high level growth is due to large volume shipments of low-end mobile devices in the region.

The smartphone market, on other hand, maintained a positive growth at 5% quarterly and 11% to the total of mobile phone shipment. IDC, in a report, is expecting for a 68% growth in Indonesia’s smartphone market by year 2012 with the coming of several low-cost smartphones.

The country’s sales chart revealed Nokia, Cross, and Nexian in top 3 record breakers among feature phones; while RIM, Samsung, and HTC comprised the top leaders for smartphones.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

M-Commerce Sales Shoot Up as More Consumers Buy via Mobile

US m-commerce sales are on a steep upward trajectory, thanks in part to ever-increasing adoption of smartphones and the mobile internet among the US mobile population. eMarketer estimates mobile commerce sales will reach $6.7 billion this year—a tiny fraction of overall retail sales, to be sure, but a 91.4% increase over 2010. Next year, sales will rise another 73.1%, to $11.6 billion.

$100 Smartphone to Shake Up Asia Telco Sector in 2012

Hundred dollar smartphones, which are already beginning to hit some markets in Asia, are likely to shake up the telecom sector in 2012, experts tell CNBC. Claus Mortensen, Principal of Emerging Technologies Research, IDC Asia Pacific, says the $100 or sub-$100 smartphone will drive data revenue for many emerging markets. “Especially in markets like Vietnam and rural parts of China, where disposable incomes are a lot less, moving from buying a similarly-priced voice-centric phone (to) buying a sub-$100 smartphone makes sense,” says Mortensen.

Research and Markets: 4Q.2011 Asia Pacific Handset Market Share and Forecast: Mobile Handset Sales to rise to 887 million in 2013

Asia Pacific Handset Market Share and Forecast is one of the most comprehensive database of its kind in the world, and it covers 28 vendors in China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Rest of Asia Pacific. We provide estimates and forecasts at the country level based on primary field research undertaken in these markets as part of Global Consumer Telecommunications and Global Enterprise Telecommunications Surveys.

Internet phone market heats up

The book peddlers in Beijing are busy seeking underground channels to purchasepirated copies of Steve Jobs’ biography. Selling at 20 yuan ($3.15) a copy, they say it’sprobably the last chance to exploit the memory of Jobs, the founding father of Apple Inc.theworld’s most valuable company in terms of market capitalization.Smartphone marketers are also using the Apple guru’s death as a golden opportunity to createa bigger market share in China – one of the most valued smartphone markets worldwide.

Hungary mobile internet subscription number climbs to 1.946m in October

The number of mobile internet subscriptions in Hungary rose to 1,946,000 in October, while the number of active mobile internet subscriptions – those who used the service at some time during the previous three months – climbed to 1,545,000 from 1,488,000 a month earlier, the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) said on Friday. Mobile internet subscribers transferred 1,661,000 gigabytes of data in October, up from 1,466,000 in September.

E-retail all set to grow the fastest, say industry experts

With 100 million Internet users, India is the third largest Internet market after China and US. With already 100 million Internet users, 40 per cent of which do so through mobile phones, e-retail is set to grow the fastest, say industry experts. Speaking at the annual business summit, Confluence 2011 at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Sachin Oswal, COO, Infibeam said, “Even if the e-commerce and especially e-retail players don’t advertise, by sheer word-of-mouth, the vertical has been fastest in India. Moreover, since the country is in the middle of the technology boom, e-retail will increase tremendously in overall Internet usage in India.”

Modest Radio Revenue Growth Forecast

Radio industry over-the-air (OTA) revenues are forecast to grow a moderate 3.5% to $14.7 billion in 2012, according to a report released in November by BIA/Kelsey. Data from “investing in Radio Market Report” indicates that the radio industry has experienced only muted OTA revenue growth in 2011, projected to end the year with $14.2 billion in revenues, up marginally from $14.1 billion in 2010. The 5-year-outlook shows radio’s OTA revenues growing to $16.6 billion by 2015.

Nigeria’s telecom subscribers to hit 152 million in 2016

Nigeria will continue to be Africa’s biggest mobile market by subscriptions, with a forecast of 152.09 million subscriber base by 2016, according to a research by Informa Telecoms and Media, a provider of business intelligence and strategic services to telecom markets. The report said Africa has become the second most connected region in the world in terms of mobile subscription count, up from fourth place last year. It added that there were over 616 million mobile subscriptions in Africa at the end of September,

Multimedia gateways drive mobile internet infrastructure market growth

According to data from the Mobile Internet Infrastructure research service from TeleGeography partner Synergy Research Group, mobile Internet infrastructure revenues exceeded USD1.3 billion in Q3 2011, growing 21 percent since Q3 2010. Strong market growth is visible around the world, but the Asia-Pacific region is closing in on North America as the largest revenue generator. Synergy defines mobile Internet infrastructure as the hardware and software that facilitate the use and operation of Internet applications on mobile networks. While revenue is growing in all major segments of the market, mobile multimedia gateways are the largest segment, accounting for 44 percent of Q3 revenues.