Ringback Tones: The APAC Operators Cash Cow

The Ringback tone service has been highly successful ever since its early launching days back in 2002. The first introduction of customized ringback tones was made by the South Korean operator SK Telecom with its 'Color Ring' ringback tones service. SK Telecom generated over €80 million (US$100 million) in Q2 2002 and has reached 54% of SK Telecom's 18 million subscribers in penetration. In the Asian market in general, the ringback tones service has maintained an average of 20% service penetration across the board, with some operators reporting up to 50% penetration.

Ongoing content usage is a key success factor to the strong ringback tone business case, and content consumption is also very high in Asia. Operators in the region report that customers frequently change their content to fit their mood, style, musical taste and just for fun. Nevertheless, it is amazing to witness the amazing ongoing uptake of ringback tones in APAC today:

"A leading wireless internet company in China recently published its results for Q1 2007, among them its Colour Ringback Tones service results:

Out of total revenues of US$35.14 million in 1Q 07, the Colour Ringback Tones Service’s revenues were US$3.35 M, which are 10.5% of the total wireless Internet service revenues in the quarter. This figure is an up of 45.6% quarter over quarter and up 36.2% year over year. Colour Ringback Tones revenues made up.

The company also states that the Colour Ringback Tones business “continued to increase quarter over quarter due to Chinese New Year related and other event driven promotional activities with mobile operator partners. While Colour Ringback Tones revenues increased year over year due to our expanding relationship with China Mobile's centralized music platform and continued declines in the average unit price of Colour Ringback Tones, stimulating end-user demand."

[via Sys-con Media]

As you can see, the ringback tones service has been and still is a “cash cow” for APAC operators. Hopefully will see more European and American operators reaching these great numbers as well.