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November 23, 2011

Location-Based Service Market in North America to Touch $710 Million in 2016

Mobile location-based service (LBS) revenues in Europe are likely to grow to $584.95 million in 2016 from $275.66 million in 2010 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.4 percent, a recent report from Berg Insight said.

Twenty percent of mobile subscribers in Europe already use location-enhanced application on a regular basis. Local search, social networking and navigation services are the main application categories. The social networking category is likely to experience the highest growth in coming years, according to Berg Insight.

The total North American LBS market is forecast to grow to $710 million in 2016 from $620 million in 2010 at a CAGR of 2.3 percent. Larger installed base of GPS-enabled handsets and smartphones are primarily driving LBS in North America.

About one-third of mobile subscribers in North America access LBS on a regular basis. Navigation apps are popular in North America. Competition in the navigation segment will lead to declining revenues in the next few years.

"Higher adoption of smartphones is driving usage of mobile Internet services and apps in general,” said Andr Malm, senior analyst, Berg Insight, in a statement. “As more and more developers add location support in their apps to enhance the user experience, LBS is now gaining mainstream acceptance among mobile subscribers."

The installed base of GPS handsets in Europe has reached 35 percent of total handsets and surpassed 70 percent in North America.

Recently, Reportlinker said that the growth in mobile phones, and especially in smart devices, is expanding the realm of advertising into a dynamic and personal mobile domain. Global mobile advertising revenues will more than triple over the next five years, reaching $16.85 billion by 2016, and showing the fastest growth of all advertising mediums.


Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for MobilityTechzone. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Carrie Schmelkin


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