E-commerce is now an important part of the economy, particularly in the developed markets. While e-commerce is still in its infancy in many emerging markets, this is set to change in the coming years especially in Asia. Here are some interesting facts for anyone considering developing mobile application and/or content for mobile devices. 

Key highlights:

• By 2012 it is expected that more than 1 trillion will be spent online by B2C consumers. B2B spending will exceed this considerably. For more information, see chapter 1.1, page 1. 

• E-payment solutions are an important part of e-commerce transactions; however security issues continue to tarnish the industry. For more information, see chapter 1.1.4, page 6. 

• Asia Pacific leads the world in terms of using mobile phones for m-payments, accounting for around 85% of customers worldwide. For more information, see chapter 4.1.1, page 63. 

• BuddeComm estimates revenue from mobile content and services (excluding SMS), accounts for around 7-10% of total mobile revenues worldwide. SMS remains popular and accounts for a further 10% of total mobile data revenues. For more information, see chapter 5, page 73. 

• Online advertising growth is set to continue for the next few years, but will slow slightly in the wake of the US financial crisis. It is expected that online advertising will eventually account for around 20% of all advertising spend in some markets. For more information, see chapter 3.2, page 43. 

• Search services are central to almost everything that users do online, and this places leading search companies such as Google and Yahoo at an advantage. In the emerging Chinese market, Baidu and Alibaba also have a good foothold. For more information, see chapter 2.1, page 13. 

• Google is still the most popular website property worldwide; however individual countries and regions show unique differences with many local sites remaining popular. Other web properties proving popular across multiple markets include Yahoo, Microsoft and Wikipedia sites, Apple Inc, eBay and Amazon.

The report adds that mobile commerce is potentially important for a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, IT, finance, retail and the media, as well as for end-users. It will work best in those areas where it can emphasise the core virtue of mobile networks – convenience.

Read more here: http://companiesandmarkets.com/