The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has published a report looking at ad-funded mobile entertainment in India. The report concludes that the Indian mobile entertainment market is creating the foundation for a successful ad-funded mobile entertainment environment. With a burgeoning mobile content market driven by personalisation and ringback tones, the MEF says the introduction of 3G will pave the way for rich-media mobile entertainment services to be delivered to the mass market and encourage spend in the markets nascent mobile advertising industry to shift from banners ads and messaging onto music and games.
The MEF believes the potential for ad-funded mobile entertainment in India is significant. It notes that analyst Direct2Mobile forecasts that Indias mobile entertainment market will be worth $403 million (204 million) in 2008 and $2.24 billion by 2013.
The MEF report highlights the fact that piracy is having a devastating impact on the ringtone market and is expected to continue to do so, with revenues forecast to continue to decline over the forecast period. However, it says, the demise of the ringtone market is being offset by the continued success of ringback tones, which is driving Indias mobile entertainment market, and will generate $120.4 million in 2008 and $440.5 million in 2013.
MEF found that, unlike in developed mobile markets, the mobile games market in India remains a marginalized service. Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO of Hungama and MEF Asia Vice Chairman says:
The average cost for games varies in India and in most cases is far higher than the amount consumers are willing to pay. As a result, mobile games are perfect for ad-funding, where the cost of the games can be offset or greatly reduced by advertising. When pricing is addressed and coupled with ad-funded mobile entertainment, mobile games will generate the most revenues for the Indian mobile entertainment market by 2013.
Stefan Rust, MEF Asia Chairman adds:
The audience matters. Without the audience the ad-space is worthless. The industry is collaborating to address the issues and remove the barriers to further mobile growth and data service adoption. Advertising funded-mobile services make entertainment more affordable, thereby bringing mobile services to the hands of a much broader demographic. This is the first of a number of initiatives that we will be bringing to the various countries across Asia.