Wireless Commerce Revenue Coming Soon

Wireless advertising and mobile e-commerce (m-commerce)
revenues will soar in the next two years worldwide, but only a
miniscule percentage of those revenues will come from the
U.S., according to Jupiter Media Metrix.

In a new study, the company said that worldwide wireless
advertising, commerce and content subscription revenue will
be $7.5 billion by 2003. However, only $.7 billion of that
revenue will come from North America. Europe will do
somewhat better with $1.7 billion while about two-thirds of the
projected revenue, or about $5 billion, will come from Asia.

Each Asian wireless user will generate about $37 in revenue
using wireless m-commerce and content services, the study
said. That includes revenue from Japan’s already-popular
i-mode service.

That bodes ill for mobile content vendors in the U.S., who will
lose money in the near-term, the study said. That’s because
those content U.S. wireless operators are not offering those vendors either
subscription or per-minute revenue sharing.

“Despite a growing wireless audience, the U.S. is a revenue wasteland for mobile
phone content providers,” said Jupiter analyst Dylan Brooks. “Although carriers garner
revenue for incremental usage of the wireless Internet, they have failed to support a
viable revenue model for content providers.” That means content providers must
think long-term, he said.

While U.S. and European consumers have largely snubbed Wireless Access Protocol
(WAP) services, that will change over time, the study said. It said it expects far
greater adoption of both WAP and i-mode in North America and Europe over time.