Thursday, July 06, 2006

Telephia: MapQuest Mobile and the Weather Channel Are the Top Revenue-Generating Downloadable Mobile Applications

According to Telephia, "MapQuest Mobile secured 21.9 percent of the total share of revenue for mobile applications, excluding mobile games and mobile TV. The Weather Channel came in second, with 5.7 percent of the total revenue share, while Verizon Superpages 2.0 came in third posting a 5.3 percent share. Two music applications, Music Choice and Sirius Music, rounded out the top five with revenue shares of five and 4.8 percent, respectively."

Kanishka Agarwal at Telephia said, "Local maps/directions and up-to-date weather are well-suited to delivery via mobile phones because they are information needs characterized by immediacy, location-specificity, and time-sensitivity. Downloadable mobile applications present a significant opportunity for higher ARPU, with more than 3.3 million mobile consumers downloading these applications during the first quarter of the year."

Table 1: Top 10 Downloadable Mobile Applications by Total Revenue
Share (U.S.)
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Application Publisher Share of Revenue
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1. MapQuest Mobile Zingy 21.9%
2. The Weather Channel Weather Channel 5.7%
3. Verizon Superpages 2.0 Verizon Directories 5.3%
4. Music Choice Music Choice 5.0%
5. Sirius Music Sirius Satellite Radio 4.8%
6. Accuweather.com Premium AccuWeather 4.4%
7. eBay Bonfire Media LLC 4.3%
8. Backup Assistant FusionOne 2.8%
9. America's Best Mobile Pix FunMail 2.6%
9. Yahoo! Photos Yahoo! 2.6%
10. ESPN Bottomline Pro ESPN 2.1%
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Source: Telephia Mobile Applications Report, Q1 2006
**Data does not include revenue for mobile TV and mobile game applications which is reported separately

Telephia fouhd that "Sixty-one percent of downloadable mobile application revenues come from repeat purchases, while 39 percent represent revenue share from new/first-time purchases. 39.5 percent of recurring revenue from repeat purchases was driven by Maps/Directions applications, with MapQuest Mobile and Verizon Superpages 2.0 claiming the highest repeat purchase revenues for the category. Nearly thirty percent of first-time purchase revenues were driven by the Entertainment category, with streaming music mobile applications, Music Choice and Sirius Music, securing the highest new purchase revenue share at nearly nine and eight percent, respectively."

Table 2: Top Downloadable Mobile Applications by Repeat Purchase
Revenue Share (U.S.)
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Repeat Purchase First-Time Purchase
Category Revenue Share (%) Revenue Share (%)
1. Maps/Directions 39.5% 16.8%
2. Weather 18.9% 8.7%
3. Entertainment 12.0% 29.9%
4. Sports 8.9% 3.9%
5. Personal Organizer/Tools 7.4% 4.3%
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Source: Telephia Mobile Applications Report, Q1 2006
**Data does not include revenue for mobile TV and mobile game applications which is reported separately