MIDiA Research Predictions 2017 The Year Of The Platform

The 20,000 Foot View: As we correctly predicted, 2016 was the year video ate the world. 2017 is going to be shaped by the battle for consumer attention through formatting and distribution wars. VR is likely to cede further ground to AR, bots will become established, while messaging apps add to their dominant position (even though user growth will slow). The pace of change will further accelerate as the big technology companies go for all-out war in their bid to own the user, achieving what they can before the inevitable series of regulatory clampdowns. 2017 promises to be unpredictable and dramatic for big tech and media companies alike, with the cost of failure ever greater. We will see ever larger strategic ambition for global platform companies, each seeking to extend their reach across and into as many competitor platforms as possible, and each looking to own as much of the digital lives of their users as they can. 2017 will be the year in which you, the user, becomes the battleground.

Key Predictions:

• Platform competition            the tech majors will see            emergence of Mobile Life Ecosystems
• Many companies            look to services revenue growth            distract attention from slowing sales            hardware, data and advertising
• Digital audience            will grow more quickly than            advertising budgets, resulting in supply            demand and lower ad rates
• The major            will go all out to            each other through bot deployment,            and OTT messaging app promotion
• A tech            will get hit with the            stage of an anti-trust suit
• Premium video            will come to messaging platforms
• eSports will            become a recognized premium content            reaching            billion in revenues
• Music streaming            continue its acceleration into consumers’            lives through Spotify’s IPO and            even the launch of an            music iPhone
• The escalating            battle will hold off the            of ‘peak TV’ for yet            year

Companies and services mentioned in this report: Access Industries, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Disney, Clash Royale, English Premier League, ESPN, Facebook, Fox Networks, Google, Microsoft, Napster, Netflix, Outbrain, Pokémon Go, Snapchat, Spotify, Taboola, Tencent, Three Italy, Three UK, Uber, Samsung,  Tidal, Twitch, YouTube