Asia Pacific Premium Content Market 2008

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled Asia Pacific Premium Content Market 2008 provides an in-depth study of the influences of various industry participants, the contributors, and drivers as well as restraints that make up the profile of the premium content market in the Asia Pacific region, encompassing ten markets. The study is based on interview sessions involving detailed discussions with leading mobile operators and major content service providers across the region.

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Market Overview

New Generation Lifestyle Boosts Premium Content Consumption in Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific premium content market is growing at a reasonable pace, driven by a high uptake of mobile music, the mobile Internet, and new generation lifestyles such as social networking sites. Premium content adoption in Asia Pacific grapples with two recurring issues, namely, in the discovery of premium content and user-interface limitations. However, the situation is gradually changing with improvements in mobile user interface and applications. "A key driver with the increasingly mobile lifestyle consumers is personalization, where it is fairly important to accessorize and personalize handsets to differentiate themselves from their friends," says the analyst of this research. "Besides a tech-savvy and mobile-lifestyle generation, mobile social networks will also boost mobile usage, opening up mobile commerce opportunities and enabling users to gift virtual or tangible items to each other." Inexpensive, simple, and ubiquitous messaging will continue to be the primary contributor to mobile data revenues. However, there will also be a strong contribution from mobile entertainment segments due to the rising demand for mobile music and video services. This demand is in line with developments with the mobile Internet, maturity of mobile networks, and flat rate data plans, encouraging the adoption of premium content.

Challenges related to handset availability and features, network maturity, and high data tariffs no longer present a barrier to the premium content market. Instead, presenting relevance and value to the customer has been one of the main challenges faced by content providers and operators. "Users are reluctant to buy premium content as there is a wide array available and the mechanisms related to their purchase are, in some cases, not clear," explains the analyst. "Non-transparent mobile data charges and pricing mechanisms also deter users."

Mobile service providers should step up their efforts to educate subscribers about mobile data charges. However, with the advent of new business models that include mobile advertising, customers may be able to enjoy free content and services. Content discovery over mobile has also made significant shifts. For instance, technology such as vertical and federated search platforms enable consumers to find exact content types with a few clicks, rather than search for information by sifting through pages of results with other search engines. "The advertisement-funded business model offers promise in keeping customers interested and providing a 'stickiness' factor," concludes the analyst. "To instill a habit of using premium content, operators should, from the onset, reinforce the value of the content together with awareness rather than give it completely free."

Market Sectors

Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the following market sectors in this research:

• Mobile content
• Mobile data
• Mobile entertainment
• Mobile information
• Mobile banking/commerce
• Mobile games
• Mobile music
• Mobile video
• Mobile graphics
• Mobile messaging services
• Mobile advertising
• Mobile location-based services
• Mobile social networking services

Technologies

The following technologies covered in this research:

• SMS
• WAP
• GPRS
• 3G
• Mobile TV
• 3.5G HSDPA
• Mobile Internet

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