Ringtones still a lucrative mobile content (Italy)
Ringtones, often taken as a technology of past is still one of the most rewarding forms of mobile content. This conclusion was borne out by recent news from Jamba that will spend $100 million on advertising this year, according to Mobile Entertainment, which does a good job at checking up on the industry. Although declining as a proportion of Jamba’s sales ringtone sales are still increasing in absolute terms, and realtone comprise 40 percent of an average month’s downloads on Jamster.
There was a serious shake-out in the direct-to-consumer industry, but it resulted in consolidation of the industry rather than the end of it. A lot of that is because of strong growth in developing markets, but top D2C players have other things to offer. “Javier Perez Dolset, CEO of Zed, says: “In five years between 40 and 50 per cent of people will access the net from a mobile device. So companies like Zed will have an advantage. Remember, we have agreements with more than 130 operators and we know how to make portals or apps work across hundreds of devices.” Buongiorno is looking at using content as a reward for topping up prepaid cards with the idea that it reduces churn.
