Australia - Mobile Media - PSMS Portals and Apps

Synopsis

Premium rate SMS services, (carrier portals and PSMS billing) and the Apps market will have developed into a $450 million+ market by 2012. By 2008 the PSMS market had become stagnant and this is still the case in 2011 but the Apps market has taken off and is estimated to have delivered a similar revenue stream in only just a few years. However, the new apps market does not provide the telcos with a new service revenue stream.

With the advent of capped mobile services and new smart phones such as the iPhone, we now see users moving to the internet to access a far wider variety of apps-based mobile content and communication services. In the premium SMS market the mobile operators maintain an iron grip through their m-payment facilities. However, at the same time, this prevented them from moving into new business opportunities.

The high cost limits the market to the more lucrative areas such as gaming, adult chat services and horoscopes. Premium rate SMS regulations (the Mobile Premium Service Code) were introduced to address the bill-shock problems produced by these high charges, but in some cases this has only made matters worse. Only those with high margins to spare can participate in this market and non-subscription information-based premium rate SMS services are at risk of being buried in complicated regulatory requirements and additional carrier requirements, making business cases for all premium rate SMS services less viable.

The premium rate SMS market is increasingly moving into specific niche market applications, such as the ones mentioned above, as well as competitions and voting where price points, volume and profile ensure that these services remain viable.

International entrants have increased their market share to above 50%. This report covers Sybase 365, Netsize Group, mBlox, Jumbuck Entertainment, iTouch, Mobile Messenger, 5th Finger, SMS Central and Communicator.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. The market in 2011
• 3. Previous analyses (updated in 2011)
  • 3.1 The demise of the carrier’s portal market
  • 3.2 M-payments last straw for portal market
  • 3.3 Portal-based content models have limited appeal
• 4. Smart phone apps market
  • 4.1 Background overview
  • 4.2 revenue, usage and statistics
  • 4.3 Companies embrace mobile apps
• 5. Subscription-based content services
• 6. Consumer protection
• 7. Key players in the premium rate SMS (PSMS) market
  • 7.1 Carriers content portals
    • 7.1.1 Introduction
    • 7.1.2 Telstra BigPond
    • 7.1.3 Optus Zoo
    • 7.1.4 Vodafone Central
  • 7.2 International players
    • 7.2.1 Sybase 365
    • 7.2.2 Netsize Group
    • 7.2.3 mBlox
    • 7.2.4 Jumbuck Entertainment Ltd (Jumbuck)
    • 7.2.5 iTouch
    • 7.2.6 Nitro Media
  • 7.3 National players
    • 7.3.1 Mobile Messenger
    • 7.3.2 5th Finger
    • 7.3.3 SMS Central
    • 7.3.4 Communicator Interactive
• 8. PSMS revenues
  • 8.1 Market projections – 2011
• 9. Mobile media providers (separate report)
• 10. Related reports

• Table 1 – Estimated revenues – PSMS market – 2004 - 2011

• Chart 1 – Australian apps market revenue estimates – 2009 - 2015
• Chart 2 – Australian mobile user app usage – 2010
• Chart 3 – Estimates of smartphone units in Australia – 2011; 2013; 2015
• Chart 4 – Estimated revenues – PSMS market – 2004 - 2011
• Chart 5 – PSMS revenue mix of downloads
• Chart 6 – PSMS estimated market share by operator – 2011

• Exhibit 1 – Gemalto
• Exhibit 2 – Key national and major smaller players in the PSMS market