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• Segments, Uses and Trends in Mobile Streaming Media

As mobile becomes a vital part of how we gather information on a daily basis, new trends have developed within mobile streaming. 

So, what is mobile streaming? It is a process of providing real-time, uninterrupted streaming of content in high quality to users across multiple platforms including Android phones, iPhones, Tablets, iPads, laptops and all other mobile devices.

The streaming media market is divided into five segments:

1. Content creation and media player software- Apple, Adobe, Microsoft and RealNetworks
2. Content delivery networks (CDNs)- Akamai and Amazon
3. Video streaming– YouTube, Netflix, Amazon
4. Audio streaming- Pandora and Spotify
5. Video streaming and broadcasting equipment– Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems and Ericsson 

These mobile streaming segments are now used and absorbed for many different types of audiences. These audiences include:

Consumers: Streaming media solutions are used by consumers in a number of ways:

• real-time entertainment
• web browsing
• file sharing
• gaming
• social networking 

Enterprises: The enterprise used media streaming for:

• knowledge sharing with others in the industry or company
• e-learning/distance learning
• sales and marketing tactics

Employees often expect to be able to stream media for both personal and business use on multiple devices. 

Employee Personal Use: Companies should create policies around Internet usage to determine if streaming media for personal use is acceptable on company computers and company-owned mobile devices. Some things these policies may involve includes:

• Content control depending on the storage space on company devices.
• The use of downloading copyright information.
• Advertising standards to curtail the type of “in your face” product “placement” that alienates enterprise clients and other end users.

Streaming Media for Business Purposes: Businesses may use streaming media platforms for promotion, content distribution and collaboration purpose to align with marketing and advertising strategies. These trends include:

• Use social networking sites to promote the companies’ products or services and gain market visibility
• Develop a marketing medium of information through the Internet and television
• Create increasingly sophisticated high-content and high-bandwidth video streams for advertising and internal e-learning
• Increase their investment in webcasting to tackle company expenses
• Replacing CDs/DVDs with streamed education and entertainment content for employee use

Now that we’ve pointed out the different segements and uses of mobile streaming, let’s touch on the trends where we will see the uses and segments come into play.

Six mobile streaming key trends for 2015:

1. Smartphones are playing a central role in news consumption.

   In 2015, 44 percent of users were consuming news from smartphones, which increased 13 percent in one year. As mobile streaming becomes more enhanced, more audiences will turn to mobile apps as a way to consume news and information. Most news is still consumed through a mobile web search.

2. Social media is growing quickly for finding, sharing and discussing the news.

   Sites used for communication and sharing information is now a place where users can also absorb breaking news stories. Facebook has captured millions of users by creating a social community, and now Facebook has 41 percent of its users logging on more frequently to read news and share topics within their networks. Millennials have been a huge aspect in allowing these social media platforms to grow.

3. There is significant growth in mobile video.

   Even though 40 percent of users would prefer to read text about a story than watch a video, channels like YouTube and others have increased video streaming usage by 5 percent. This statistic will only continue to grow as mobile streaming becomes more personalized, faster and higher quality.

4. Search engine optimization (SEO) becoming more critical as homepages become less.

   From 2014 to now, research has shown the views of homepages decreasing while individual article views are increasing. This explains how important search engine optimization and social media platforms are for companies distributing content. Users are more likely to find an article from typing keywords into a search than using a company’s homepage navigation bar to find an article.

5. Buzzfeed, the Huffington Post and others have become “masters at creating and distributing content” for the global social mobile world.

   In today’s digital world, some news companies are classified “digital born” and has an audience of users from around the world, unlike traditional media that had users only in the proximity of their location. This digital born idea will only increase as technology enhancements increase as well.

6. Ads, native content & monetization.

   Especially with the new iOS 9 feature, ad blocking is becoming more of a trend. According to the research, 47 percent of people regularly use ad-blocking software. Because of this trend, more companies are using native advertisement as a way to market themselves.

Faulkner Information Services: https://www.faulkner.com/freereport/streamingmedia.htm
Digital News Research Report 2015: https://digitalnewsreport.org/

The SK Content Team