Web 2.0 activities on mobile handsets will generate US$22.4bn in revenue annually by 2013, Juniper Research has claimed.
This is up from US$5.5bn at present. Juniper Research includes social networking and user-generated content (UGC), and mobile search and mobile instant messaging (IM) in its cache of mobile web 2.0 activities that will drive this revenue growth.
The increase will be driven by changes in user behaviour, with users becoming creators of content as well as consumers of it.
The social web will also be a core driver of the mobile web.
“Combining the power of the social network map – namely, ‘who I know, how I know and where I know’ – with that of mobility, presents the greatest opportunity for revenue generation of any of the applications as defined within Juniper’s mobile web 2.0 framework,” stated Ian Chard, Juniper research analyst.
“The phone is carried with us most of the time and contains a huge amount of personal data, making it a logical extension for the social network and a host of other collaborative web 2.0 applications being mobilised.”
Juniper Research’s studies found that total global revenues for mobile social networking and UGC will rocket from US$1.8bn in 2008 to US$11.2bn in 2013, accounting for 50pc of the mobile web 2.0 market.
Over this period, growth in mobile search and mobile IM will be more measured.
Service revenues will account for the majority of total mobile web 2.0 revenues, Juniper Research said.
By Niall Byrne
