� UGC, Music, Infotainment to drive revenues from $4bn in 2010
MUMBAI: Operators are seeking to offset sharp decreases in voice ARPU in the Indian Sub-Continent by focusing on their mobile data strategies, creating tremendous opportunities in the Content & Application sector In a new study, Juniper Research forecasts that operator-billed data revenues will increase from $4 billion in 2010 to $10 billion in 2015.
Juniper found that whilst mobile content service revenues are currently dominated by the Music sector, User Generated Content (UGC) will in fact surpass Music to generate the highest revenue by 2015. Other entertainment categories like Infotainment will also grow significantly over the period.
The Mobile Indian Sub-Continent report also observed that growth would be further bolstered as 3G deployment gathers momentum, although noting that adoption will be significantly constrained by handset costs.
Other findings from the Juniper report include:
�The Indian Sub-Continent mobile user base is expected to rise from 814 million in 2010 to nearly 1.3 billion in 2015
�Blended ARPU levels are expected to decline steadily across the region, although the sharp fall in voice ARPU will be partially offset by the steady increase from data services
�India will provide the largest share of cumulative regional revenues over the forecast period, followed by Bangladesh
The new report provides in-depth coverage and forecasts for the five Indian Sub-Continent markets – Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka It also includes regional analysis and forecasts for mobile content and applications (advertising, TV, gambling, games, UGC, music and adult content) and mobile commerce (payments, money transfer, banking and ticketing).