Russian Market of Mobile Games Keeps Growing
Skip contentAugust 2 2005
According to Russian Wireless Content Market Report by a multinational consultancy firm J’son & Partners sales volume of mobile games in Russia has soared more than 15-fold since the beginning of 2004.
J’Son & Partners identifies PlayFon as a true leader in the market with 43% share and 3-fold advantage over its closest competitors. PlayFon was first to offer Russian customers mobile games and has retained its leading positions in this segment ever since. Currently, PlayFon’s unparalleled gaming collection include more than 1800 Java and mophun games. The company has exclusive rights for distribution of the games from the leading developers, such as I-play, Indiagames, Synergenix Interactive, in the Russian market.
According J&P research PlayFon, PlayMobile and Mobilnyi Express (Mobile Gamers) form the top trio of leading Russian mobile game providers. However, there is a wide gap between PlayFon and two rivals - 13% and 11% respectively. The share of content providers specializing in ringtones and wallpapers does not exceed 3%.
The tendency of growing importance of the gaming segment that had become apparent in 2004 has sustained in the first part of 2005. “The volume of the Russian mobile game market is set to increase. In 2004 the share of games in mobile content market was 6%, whereas in the first six month of 2005 it climbed to 12%. There is no doubt that by the end of the year the growth will continue” Polina Maslennikova, J’son & Partners analyst commented.
Experts point out two main factors boosting further development of mobile game market. First, the number of handsets supporting Java-technology, which still dominates the market, keeps growing. The share of mophun and BREW games remains insignificant, although experts indicate some advantages of mophun-applications over Java when it comes to 3D graphics and multiplayer mode.
The second important factor is the product expansion. The best Western developers entered the Russian market. “Russia is currently the fastest growing mobile market in Europe. In 2004 the number of mobile phone users in Russia grew by 70% to 60 million mobile customers, after a doubling in 2003 from 16 million to 32 million users, which clearly makes this market an exciting place to be” Brian Greasley, I-play CEO said. In April 2005 PlayFon inked an exclusive contract with I-play. As a result Russian gamers got a chance to enjoy such hits as Maria Sharapova Tennis, Colin McRae Rally, The Fast and The Furious and many others.
“Russian market of wireless content follows a general trend. Western analysts predict mobile games accounting for 20% of mobile content in the nearest future. Deployment of 3G networks promises explosive popularity growth of multi-user Applications” Ilya Gorodetsky, PlayFon Head of Relations added.
About PlayFon
PlayFon, an international provider of wireless entertainment offers a wide range of services in Russia, UK, Sweden and Ukraine. PlayFon is a leader in Russian mobile game market. The company is listed among Top10 Russian content-providers. PlayFon was first to introduce Java and mophun games, video and ringtones in MP3 format in the Russian market of mobile content.
For additional information, please call +7 (095) 783-0525 or visit us at http://corp.playfon.com.
