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Content Delivery >> Mobile Rah!
12/29/2005
“This is undoubtedly one of the most exciting industries in the world right now,” he says, likening the mobile content business to a second coming of the dot-com boom. “For colleges and universities, the possibilities are endless.”
The Environment
It’s no secret that there’s money to be made around college sports. The National Collegiate Athletic Administration (NCAA) generates more than $2.7 billion in licensing revenue per year, exceeding both NASCAR and the National Hockey League. Furthermore, college sports have the longest selling season of any major sports licensor, starting in August and running through June. Add to this the fact that six out of every 10 Americans own a cell phone, and that college-aged Americans love buying high-tech gadgets and gizmos, and colleges and universities have a great opportunity to earn big bucks delivering licensed content to mobile phones.
Currently, there’s no bigger mobile content market than that of ring tones. In 2005, global revenue exceeded $3 billion, according to Ispos, a firm that tracks these trends. And US forecaster Jupiter Research estimates that annual ring tone revenues totaled $417 million last year, and will grow to $724 million by 2009. A recent survey by M:Metrics, the Seattle market research firm, indicates that nearly 30 percent of all cell phone owners between the ages of 18 and 24 have purchased at least one ring tone. According to Mark Donovan, an M:Metrics analyst, no other demographic group has embraced mobile content with such passion.
“These statistics indicate that especially among young people, mobile phones are just another distribution platform for content and applications,” Donovan says. “The medium is something that should be on the roadmap for everyone, in terms of monetizing.”
In the consumer industry at large, the ring tone is quite literally ringing off the hook. In 2005, the popular R&B singer Beyonce Knowles went platinum selling ring tones alone, and rapper Eminem earned more money last year on $2 mobile downloads than he did on actual records. This past summer, Madonna became the first major artist to set up a ring-tone “shop” on the Internet. And in November, Billboard magazine even started publishing a list of best-selling ring tones alongside its more traditional categories such as best-selling album and top song—perhaps the truest and most earth-shattering acknowledgment of the ring tone’s value as pop culture currency.
In the higher education environment, ring tones are doing just as well. While no research firm specifically tracks mobile content in higher education, vendor and analyst experts estimate that anywhere between 300 and 500 colleges and universities are making money by selling this kind of mobile content, and that the number is growing every month. Donovan notes that the higher education marketplace has embraced other forms of mobile content too, including video clips and cell phone wallpaper. In some instances, schools even incorporate text messages and other alerts into their offerings (see “What’s Up Next?” below).
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