According to a major study commissioned by UK regulator PhonepayPlus and undertaken by industry analysts Mobilesquared, non-compliance explains almost half of the recent decline in usage of Premium Rate Services in the UK.
The study shows that decline in the UK PRS market continues, with revenues down 3.2% 2013-2014 and projected to fall 7.2% 2014-2015.
Mobile Operator billing, including Payforit, is the only market sector showing growth. Current growth areas are Charity, Games and Gambling. Future potential could also derive from quasi-physical goods and non-digital services, subject to legislative developments.
Nick Lane, Chief Insight Analyst at Mobilesquared comments “Whilst ARPU has increased, PRS users in the UK have dropped from 19.3 million (Jan 2014) to 16.5 million (Jan 2015). Compliance problems account for 46% of this decline. Cost, service and content factors explain the remaining 54%”.
The chart above shows Mobilesquared’s 2015 forecast for revenue split across the various PRS channels.