Rating: The role of the prosumer is apparently key
Everybody is talking about mobile web 2.0 but not only has market analyst, Juniper Research, put a figure on it ($5.5 billion), the company has also defined what it actually means by mobile web 2.0.
In fact, Juniper is predicting that revenues for mobile web 2.0 will soar almost fourfold in just five years to $22.4 billion in 2013. What Juniper classifies as the mobile web 2.0 includes social networking plus User Generated Content (UGC), and MIM (Mobile Instant Messaging). But it also includes mobile search and Location Based Services. However, it is revenues from mobile social networking/UGC that will take the lion’s share of the market (50 per cent) in Juniper’s view. That translates to $1.8 billion this year ( 2008), which will soar tenfold to $11.2 billion in 2013.
The report identifies the ‘prosumer’ (ie somebody who both creates and consumes content) as being at the core of this revolution. It also stresses the importance of the ‘social web’ which encompasses a “wide variety of social computing tools enabling users to develop detailed Web identities, create online communities and communicate with like-minded individuals,” according to the report.
For those who want the full data, the report is entitled ‘ Mobile Web 2.0: Leveraging ‘Location, IM, Social Web & Search’ and its author is Ian Chard. Further details of the report are on the company’s web site.
