Benjamin Joffe on the future of mobile media

Danwei's event on Wednesday this week on the future of mobile media is now fully booked and registration is closed. From now until Wednesday, we will publish short Q&A pieces with media and digital experts, thoughts on the future of the media industry in a 3G world.

Today's piece is by Benjamin Joffe. He is a veteran of the mobile and Internet industries in Japan, Korea and China. He is the founder of Plus Eight Star, a cross-market and cross-culture strategy & innovation consulting company specializing in Asian telecom and Internet.

1. What will the biggest thing in mobile media in 2010 be?
Media includes games, news, apps, video, podcasts, SMS novels etc. etc. An information or entertainment product that can be viewed, played or interacted with on a mobile phone

App stores will take quite some time to spread but have good potential, maybe rather in 2011.
Games and mobile communities are the two that should grow most.
Video and podcast will remain confidential due to limited appeal and high data usage bringing an unsatisfactory user experience.
Despite strong usage initially, mobile novels might have a problem with content moderation.

2. How is the job market going to change because of mobile media?

I don't think mobile media is going to create so many jobs - also many mobile industry people lost theirs when regulation changed a few years ago - but job seekers might use mobile to find various jobs!

Three years ago in Japan I remember discussing with a soon-to-graduate student who was using her mobile to get job offers forwarded. It can surely be done in China using SMS and WAP as data plans are becoming cheaper.

3. What type of companies will make money? Examples?

Mobile gaming, mobile SNS companies can leverage virtual goods.
Mobile advertising continues to grow with data usage and as ad agencies learn more about mobile.
Pure ad-based media mobile services will have a hard time, while mobile could become extensions of existing media properties, increasing their reach. China Mobile already distributes widely (to millions of users) a daily mobile newspaper!

The wild card: maybe location-based communities will have a chance? Two services, FourSquare and Gowalla are getting many excited in Silicon Valley based on this concept - I think they would require significant improvements to work as businesses, but usage might grow in China too once local entrepreneurs figure how to "culturize" them.

See also Thomas Crampton and Lu Gang's answers to the same questions.

This Danwei event is brought to you by Danwei Jobs, The Opposite House and Waggener Edstrom.