Survey: Mobile will lead digital content investment

Venture capitalists forecast accelerated investment in digital content creation over the next two years, with increased M&A activity also expected over the coming year, according to a new survey released by audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG. After polling 300 venture capitalists, corporate execs and investment bankers, KPMG reports that 52 percent of respondents believe venture investment in online and mobile content creation will grow during the remainder of the decade; 25 percent of respondents believe investment will increase by more than 20 percent, with participants in the study split evenly on whether investment will support user-generated content or professional content providers.

Asked which sectors will experience the greatest investment boost, 31 percent of respondents cited mobile applications, 26 percent pointed to technology enablers and 20 percent named social media services. While 31 percent of respondents expect social networks will dominate mobile entertainment market revenue by 2009, gaming and music downloads each garnered 20 percent of the votes, followed by video (14 percent) and user-generated applications (10 percent). Among participants citing mobile social networking, 44 percent believe social media sites themselves will take the lead, with 22 percent pointing to content owners, 20 percent brand advertisers and 14 percent wireless operators. In addition, 90 percent of VCs believe mass adoption of mobile video will take place in the next five years, with 60 percent forecasting it will happen in the next three years.

For more on the KMPG study:
- read this release [1]

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