December 18, 2008

Venture Capitalists List Trends to Watch in 2009

The economic downturn will slow growth and innovation in many areas, but will create attractive investment opportunities in the communications and media sectors in the new year, according to M/C Venture Partners, which is releasing its annual list of the Top-10 communications and media industry trends to watch for 2009. Consumer segmentation, increasing enterprise bandwidth requirements, expanded uses of virtualization and increased adoption of personal mobile services will also be at the forefront of the industry next year, according to the venture capital firm's list.

M/C Venture Partners created the list as part of its ongoing research to understand industry trends and discover investment opportunities in the communications, media, and information technology sectors.

The leading trend going into 2009, according to the firm's list, is an accelerating shift in consumer spending toward wireless services and replacement of landline services. The trend will affect wireless operators at the expense of telcos and cable.

Other trends on the list:

• Consumer adoption of mobile data services will continue to accelerate.

• Consumer segmentation will increase.

• Smaller carriers will experience an improved competitive landscape.

• Consumer and mobility-driven video content consumption will drive network operators to revise their network deployment strategies to profitably accommodate changing usage patterns.

• Enterprise bandwidth needs will drive redundancy and quality requirements.

• Virtualization will continue its trend of deepening penetration of the enterprise.

• Scrutiny of media effectiveness will increase, thereby accelerating the movement away from traditional media outlets and toward measurable media and tools for more effective media usage.

• New leadership at the FCC and Congress will create a more innovation-friendly regulatory environment for smaller competitors.

• Personal wireless broadband will become more widespread.