The assured outlook comes after a successful quarter in the region for most companies. The survey, carried out in association with MEF member KPMG, shows that as many as 35.6% of companies responding saw their Middle East revenues beat their budgets in the first quarter of 2011.
It is perhaps no surprise, then, that companies believe the trend will continue; on average, respondents expected their mobile content & commerce related revenues to grow by 32.9%.
The optimism extended to all specific mobile content and categories considered in the survey. The five areas around which there was most confidence were a mix of established and new categories; Mobile Social Networking and Mobile Applications achieved the highest confidence ratings, followed closely by Games and Coupons/Vouchers, with Infotainment (e.g. news, sports and so on) rounding off the top five.
“KPMG is pleased to once again be supporting the delivery of unique industry metrics with MEF,” stated Mark Harding, Director of KPMG’s IP & Contract Governance Services. “This survey provides a key snapshot of the Middle East mobile content and commerce sector today and paints an encouragingly healthy picture of a key market set for growth and expansion.”
“This is a very exciting time for the industry. While the majority of respondents’ total immediate revenues are still more likely to come from established content services at 45.8% at 2Q11, a whole range of new services are being delivered on mobile, helping to make consumers lives easier and with sights clearly set beyond traditional content and entertainment,” commented Rimma Perelmuter, MEF Global Executive Director. “It’s clear that mobile is a platform that no company can ignore.”
Through its work with a range of regional leaders, MEF is well-positioned to better understand the changing dynamics within the Middle East. MEF and Qtel International teamed up to open MEF’s first office in the Middle East in 2010 with the vision to foster mobile innovation, application development and localisation of content in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region – thus becoming the main driver for mobile content & commerce in the region.