Kids are fueling profits for mobile providers

You might find kids and teenagers annoying, but mobile service providers look at them as the key to their future. The 2006 Mobile Youth report from the Wireless World Forum points to the youth segment as being responsible for turning around markets which had been stagnant and mature, like North America and parts of Asia.

The young customers are behind the growth of things like text messaging, mobile music and video games. The data services that drive those new offerings are financial gold mines for the mobile providers.

Youth spending on mobile services is huge. So big, in fact, that young people will spend more than $100 billion for the first time this year. They represent more than 50% of data spending in mature markets.

It’s not just now that young people are important to providers, though. The average 10 year old will spend about $30,000 on mobile services in their life, with more than half of that being spent before they turn 35.