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17 February 2010, Barcelona and London - MEF's Annual Business Confidence Index (BCI), compiled by KPMG and capturing a year's worth of quarterly industry sentiment, points to a consistent positive growth for the mobile media and entertainment industry, with a cooling in optimism from Q3 2009.

Andrew Bud, the Global Chair of MEF stated: "Since its launch in January 2009, the BCI has underlined the industry's ability to weather the storm of the recession and leverage the new opportunities presented by the proliferation of smartphones and digital economy business models. With the global economic recovery underway, the first aggregate results of the Annual BCI point to a toughened industry which has readjusted growth predictions from 33% growth in Q2, down to 24%.

"Just as industry was resistant to despair in the height of the recession in the first quarter of 2009, so it has successfully resisted exultant relief during economic recovery as reflected in a more conservative forecast for the size of the mobile media market since last year from $32 to $36 billion."

Rimma Perelmuter, MEF Executive Director added that: "By comparing each set of BCI findings, we have identified clear regional market variations between December 2008 and December 2009. Last year demonstrated significant growth in C&S America (up from a 2% share in December 2008 to 7% in December 2009), Africa & the Middle East (4% to 10%) and APAC (9% to 12%). These findings highlight a growth trend in market share across the Southern Hemisphere, but also a decline for Northern Hemisphere regions, particularly in North America and Western Europe. Looking forward to the next 12 months, general stability is projected across the global market which indicates a degree of market caution."

Mark Harding, Director of Digital Content at KPMG, who analysed the survey findings, said: "While the industry has had to adapt to the challenges of the global economic downturn, reducing annual growth projections, there is optimism in the rise of applications, which look set to drive the industry forward as it continues towards recovery.

"Respondents now expect the value chain that develops, sells and delivers applications to account for 21% of revenue streams for the next quarter and the majority expect this to be incremental revenue. Considering applications stores only came about 18 months ago, this is a significant development, showing consumers' willingness to embrace and consume mobile content."

About the research:

The Mobile Entertainment Forum 'Business Confidence Index' (BCI) was launched in January 2009 to analyse revenue and business trends in the $36bn mobile entertainment industry.

The responses to the BCI survey, which was completed by MEF member companies, are analysed by KPMG. MEF members were surveyed from across the mobile entertainment value chain, from operators to content owners, billing aggregators and service providers. MEF members were asked a total of fifteen questions relating to their confidence in the mobile entertainment value chain. Questions relating to revenue, headcount and marketing decisions were asked alongside those about the confidence in different types of mobile content.

The MEF BCI is conducted on a quarterly basis, with a report on the findings of the Business Confidence Index available to MEF members at www.m-e-f.org.

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