Europe Ringtone Market Mature, Declining: Jupiter
Turns out the only people willing to shell out big bucks for personalized tones are cash-strapped teenagers. Jupiter analyst Thomas Husson:
Jupiter's latest forecast for ringtones in Western Europe was 917M euros in 2007 down to 910M euros in 2011...JupiterResearch has significantly tempered its ring tones projections due to the following:
• Prices have declined
• Attempts to reach relatively older demographics have been unsuccessful
• Most new content category growth occurs at the expense of growth of traditional ring tone formats: Young consumers have limited budgets
• Piracy issues and availability of free online content concern many executives, according to interviews conducted by JupiterResearch
• Third-party and pure-mobile players have relatively lower margins on real tones, tending to decrease advertising pressure that had stimulated the market as a wholeGrowth will essentially come from the substitution of polyphonic ring tones for true tones and a limited increase of new formats (e.g., ring-back tones, video ring tones, screen savers). Also, mobile operators and record labels should partner with trusted third parties
to promote and advertise content based on impulse purchasing."
But on the other hand, people like the concept of buying ringtones by SMS. And if its not ringtones, some other content will take on.
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