Mobile Entertainment Industry

Mobile Entertainment Market Analysis

The Mobile Entertainment Market is expected to register a CAGR of 15% during the forecast period.

• The proliferation of smartphones has brought about significant changes in mobile user behavior and mobile entertainment. Prior to the advent of smartphones, the mobile entertainment phenomenon consisted of ringtones, wallpapers, and some complete audio tracks.
• Mobile TV and games, streaming video, and music have transformed digital entertainment and provided mobile users with a healthy experience. Recently, mobile apps have revolutionized the way users find and display content. Thus, recent years have witnessed the release of music and game studios in mobile apps, which are becoming access points for users to explore and taste content.
• Also, the growing penetration of smartphones across the globe and the growth in mobile network accessibility in recent years, such as 4G and 5G, is expected to drive the mobile entertainment market. However, paid versions of some types can challenge further penetration, especially in developing countries.
• As most countries globally are under lockdown to control the spread of the virus, there has been significant growth in the consumption of digital entertainment, including mobile games. The major gaming vendors have witnessed strong growth in downloads of multiple types of mobile games in the COVID-19 affected markets.

Mobile Entertainment Market Trends

Increasing Adoption of Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD)

• According to Cisco, Connected TVs will grow third fastest (at a little less than a 6 percent CAGR), to 3.2 billion by 2023 after M2M connections and smartphones. Around 33% of people watch online videos on a Smart TV, with video-enabled apps compared to 23% who use a video game console.
• In India, the top 5 metro cities account for 55% of the total OTT video platform users, while Tier one cities account for another 36%. As per the survey, Hotstar leads the Indian OTT video content market, followed by Amazon's Prime Video, SonyLIV, Netflix, Voot, Zee5, ALTBalaji, and ErosNow in terms of the percentage of respondents subscribed to each platform. ErosNow users were the most engaged users, with 68% of its users indicating that they watched content daily. The platform continues to thrive through partnerships. In India, it partnered with Xiaomi for pre-installation on smart TVs.
• Further, OnePlus ventured into the Indian smart TV market with the launch of the OnePlus TV. The device combined imagination and intelligence to seamlessly connect mobile and home networks for the future of interconnectivity. Hungama, Eros, and ZEE5 content have been deep-integrated into the OnePlus Play dashboard. Other content partners include Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, SonyLiv, and YouTube. This significantly shall provide growth to the Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) segment.
• In a country such as the United States, The Walt Disney Company announced it had reached 10 million subscribers upon initial launch, putting its Disney+ service fourth on the list. Also, Netflix had 69.97 million U.S. subscribers. The subscriber base in the United States accounts for around a third of Netflix's worldwide streaming subscriber base.
• Along with providing messaging services, some OTT apps provide the functionalities that a broadcast channel provides to its customers. With a high adoption rate, users broadcast entertaining videos, music, local or international news to many other users. This wide range of applicabilities is accelerating its adopted growth.

Asia Pacific to Witness the Highest Growth

• The increasing smartphone penetration, rapidly changing consumer preferences, increasing competition, and untapped demographics are significant factors driving the gaming companies to invest in the Indian mobile gaming market.​
• India is one of the fastest-growing smartphone markets globally, with the number of smartphones expected to double by 2022 nearly. Much of this active user base comes from rural India, where mobile gaming is still gaining popularity.​
• Carriers and OTT service providers have entered into strategic partnerships to offer users bundled services and discounted subscriptions to benefit from the surge in mobile-based OTT video consumption. For example, Indian companies such as Airtel and Vodafone work with Amazon Prime and Netflix to offer video streaming services at lower rates.
• Online gaming is also fueling smartphone games' penetration, with more than 90% of millennials preferring smartphones over gaming PCs and other devices in India. This motivates many vendors to launch new technologies that enable mobile games to gain a competitive advantage. In July 2019, the Indian Air Force launched a new mobile 3D video game themed on various aerial combats and missions, including airstrikes.​
• According to Google, more than 60% of India's online gamers are in the 18-24 age group. Young users play online games on their smartphones, leading to a surge in gaming apps downloads. The company also estimates that there will be 310 million online gamers in India by 2021, mainly due to ease of access to gaming payment options and the high occurrence of smartphone use.
• Due to affordable gaming experience, India is now in the top five markets globally based on the number of users for online and mobile gaming. According to NASSCOM data estimates, the Indian mobile gaming market will reach 628 million users by 2020. However, this number is expected to increase due to the positive impact resulting from coronavirus.
• As per AppsFlyer's report released in April 2020, India has been experiencing a gradual increase in in-game app installs and sessions since March 7, when the number of reported COVID-19 cases in the country started to climb. User sessions were reported to have increased by 65% and organic installs by 50% in April 2020.

Mobile Entertainment Industry Overview

The key companies operating in the Mobile Entertainment market include Apple, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, AT&T Inc, Google, and Rovio International are some of the major players in mobile entertainment market. These players are bolstering the mobile entertainment market and will continue to do so shortly.

• May 2021- OnMobile Global Limited, the global leader in mobile entertainment, has launched a new B2B gaming product, Challenges Arena, a single destination of everyday challenges that provides an unparalleled gamified experience.
• March 2021 - With the help of Amazon Web Services, NBCUniversal International's reality on-demand OTT platform hayu gains personalization and data analysis. The business benefits are substantial, as hayu has improved its service's performance, viewer retention, and subscription income by implementing virtualized media processing capabilities from Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• October 2020 - Netflix Inc. partnered with Microsoft to help coders in their learning journey of Data Science and AI. Microsoft launched the Global Skills Initiative, aimed at helping 25 million people worldwide acquire new digital skills. It has launched new modules that are inspired by the new Netflix original, "Over the Moon. "It will take the user through beginners' concepts in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
• September 2020 - Google announced that they are working on YouTube Shorts, a new way to watch and create on YouTube. Shorts is a new short-form video experience for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones.

Mobile Entertainment Market Leaders

Mobile Entertainment Market News

• September 2021 - In Kenya, Netflix is releasing a new free Android mobile plan that will allow users to watch a limited selection of its repertoire, including full seasons of certain shows. The Netflix mobile plan for Android allows users to join up without having to submit any financial information.
• August 2021- Netflix began testing its games inside their android app for their members in Poland. The paying subscribers will try out two games, "Stranger Things: 1984" and "Stranger Things 3".
• July 2021- Gamestacy announced its partnership with Beamable to launch Influenzer, a unique social, Multiplayer mobile game. This soft launch is anticipated to usher new options for gender-specific games in the rapidly growing mobile games market.
• May 2021- NetEase announced the launch of new games for their diverse portfolio of mobile as well as a personal computer and also contained updates for over 60 products at its Seventh Annual Product Launch.