Reports: mobile

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In the old world, there were clear demarcations between media types, bordered with proprietary media and playback devices. However, different entertainment forms now exist in more interdependent ecosystems than they did in the analogue era, with all-in-one app stores blurring the boundaries and turning media consumption into an amorphous whole where content types compete directly with each another for both time and money.

Snapchat represents the Millennial zeitgeist more than any other single app. It continues to engage digitally native young audiences just as much as it appeals to traditional media brands, such as Viacom and CBS, desperate to reach young audiences on their own turf.

France is one of the leading European app markets. Like other key markets in the region, the French app market is already maturing with annual revenue and app buyer growth set to slow to single digits by 2020. With this shift in market dynamics, average revenue per user (ARPU) will gain importance.

In just a few short years mobile messaging apps have become home to the largest group of digital audiences on the planet, with 4.8 billion cumulative monthly active users. Following websites and social networks, messaging platforms are emerging as the third phase of how audiences congregate digitally.

Along with TV, radio is one of the most pervasive media platforms on the planet. It is also still one of the key drivers of music discovery. But things are changing. Historically Radio broadcasters had their audiences protected in the safe confines of dedicated devices and direct competition was thin on the ground.

In May 2014 we warned about potential risks of the Superstar App Economy. Too few apps were taking most of the revenue. Investors funded huge marketing and development budgets in a bid to create mega hits, but in the process raised the barriers to entry.

Accelerating smartphone and tablet adoption around the world is supercharging an already buoyant app store economy. A combination of Apple’s tightly integrated ecosystem and Google’s aggressive marketing strategy are helping propel apps further into consumers’ consciousness.

Natives and Immigrants demarcate the digital world. While Digital Immigrants bear the baggage of their analogue era past, Digital Natives have only ever know ubiquitous connectivity and content availability. Consequently the digital music behaviour of Digital Natives evolves at a dramatic pace and markedly over indexes against the Digital Immigrants.