by Analytics Insight
January 19, 2022
There’s plenty of room for growth of the global entertainment industry but South Africa, India, China, and Brazil stand out as key locations for various mediums in 2022
In 2020, the global entertainment and media market tumbled amidst a worldwide recession. On the one hand, many forms of live entertainment were closed down, and high media hardware price points halted their sales, but on-demand entertainment was increasingly sought out. This was predominantly in the form of cost-effective streaming platforms and free-to-play games.
Still, last year – with the official numbers yet to come in just yet – the entertainment industry was expected to bounce back to pre-2020 levels, hitting $2.2 trillion as a result. However, for continued growth in 2022, with main markets stabilizing, attentions turn to the less developed markets where there’s still a very high ceiling. So, in gaming, new realities, and movies, these are the regions that look to rise in importance this year.
Mobile access to continue to drive African gaming
In many of the largest gaming markets were established on PC and dedicated console hardware, with the likes of Microsoft, Sony, and Sega laying the foundations of the entertainment medium. However, these all had hefty price points or weren’t made readily available to the public, as computers were in nations like the Korea Republic. So, when smartphones became popularized here, they simply offered a different way to the game.
Now that smartphones are becoming more accessible around the world, though, more people are being exposed to several forms of gaming. A key country in this regard in the future might just be South Africa. One of the prominent economies of its continent, South Africa’s main point of access for the internet is mobile, helping to make casual and social gaming much more commonplace than console or PC gaming.
With a mobile to hand, people can play the most accessible games around. Not only does the popular freemium model of mobile games help this, but so too does the level of competition in mobile casinos. As you only need a mobile connection to access, South African mobile casinos are a solution for power outages. They also offer on-demand entertainment. Perhaps most importantly, bonuses and rewards pave the way for additional playing time.
Virtual reality finally looks to kick on in the Asia-Pacific
With immersive experiences, games, and even content viewing options available as virtual reality apps, experts have forecast the rise of the hardware for years. Yet, the growth has been far more steady than sudden. PlayStation VR made a huge impact, and there was a lot of buzz around Valve’s Index kit, but perhaps the most important going forward will be Oculus, primarily because of its ties to Meta.
Now on the Oculus Quest 2, the VR headset is the most accessible of the lot: it’s both untethered and has one of the lowest price points of its sector. By the end of 2021, the number of total VR headsets worldwide grew by 6.1 million to hit 16.5 million. After Meta’s announcement of the upcoming metaverse and its continued push to get its hardware out, Oculus sales surged over the winter period and likely will continue to do so.
Perhaps the most interesting region for this burgeoning entertainment tech, though, is Asia-Pacific. China and India are greatly helping to increase the affordability and widespread adoption of the technology. In these countries particularly, VR has tremendous scope to grow now. Both are big mobile gaming countries and boast massive populations. In fact, by 2023, VR in China is predicted to reach close to $16.5 billion.
Major movie market being adhered to in South America
Back in 2019, Brazil was named as one of the leading emerging nations in movies and entertainment, with its market value set at just over $1.5 billion. The demand for high-quality movies, particularly home-grown movies, in Brazil is huge, and as a platform trying to take root in the massive South American country, Netflix took note of these demands.
First, they snapped up a bunch of older local products, as Netflix often does in new countries. In 2019, they teamed up with several local talents, from writers to actors, to increase its stock of Originals made in and for Brazil. That was the start of a two-year rollout, but it must have been going incredibly well as the investment was huge and more has been planned. In 2020, some $60 million was invested, with Netflix planning to double its investment in 2022 from its 2021 figures.
There’s plenty of room for growth for these entertainment and media sectors around the world, but South Africa, India, China, and Brazil stand out as key locations for various mediums in 2022.
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