Research company GfK has announced the formation of a new company, GfK M to provide what it says will be the industrys most comprehensive tracking service of mobile content sales. GfK M is a joint venture between GfK, the worlds fourth largest research organisation, and Media-Control, which supplies entertainment sales data.
GfK M says it will meet the need for reliable mobile content data by companies in the media, gaming industry, music industry, content and network providers, publishers, hardware and component manufacturers. Data will be provided weekly by network operators, including Virgin Mobile, T-Mobile and Vodafone, and content providers, such as Jamba.
GfK M will initially cover the most important European markets, including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Benelux countries,  progressively expanding throughout Europe, the USA, Japan and Korea. The first GfK M marketing service will be a European mobile game panel that will monitor the video games downloaded on mobile phones via network operators or content providers. GfK M will gradually encompass all types of mobile content, including ringtones, full track music, videos and mobile TV.
Mobile content is the next big revenue stream for the telecommunications industry and consequently mobile content market knowledge is vital for future strategic decision making says Iris DeGersem, Managing Director, GfK Retail and Technology UK. Quality of information is key, and GfK M will benefit from our joint proven expertise in multimedia retail panel and entertainment sales data monitoring. Ultimately, anything downloaded onto a mobile phone will be tracked by GfK M, and for the first time clients will be able to see a truly global picture of the mobile content industry.
Nick White, Head of Content at Virgin Mobile adds:
The industry is in need of robust market data, and GfK has proven to be able to deliver it in hardware, so are our trusted provider in content.