▶ Mobile-related market at 11.6217 trillion yen; video grows 114% but user numbers are not increasing [8/5]

The Mobile Content Forum (MCF) released a survey on the scale of the mobile content-related market for 2025 (January–December) on July 31, 2026.

The entire market reached 11.6217 trillion yen, 111% of the previous year.

The breakdown is 3.6231 trillion yen for the "mobile content market," which distributes digital content for a fee (112% of the previous year), and 7.9986 trillion yen for the "mobile commerce market," which includes mail order and ticket sales (111% of the previous year).

In the content market, games and social games were the largest at 1.7601 trillion yen, and the MCF cites the expansion of the sales ratio of external billing outside of Apple and Google as one of the reasons for growth.

The video and entertainment market was 636.5 billion yen (114% of the previous year), the e-book market was 546.9 billion yen, and the music content market was 237.4 billion yen.

Against the backdrop of the expanding use of generative AI, "others" surged to 442.2 billion yen (143% of the previous year).

When you hear that the growth rate of the video and entertainment market is 114%, you might imagine a scene where people are rushing into streaming services in droves.

However, when you look at the content of the numbers, a slightly different picture emerges.

GEM Partners explains that the growth factor for the subscription video streaming market in 2025 was not an increase in the number of users, but rather an increase in unit prices due to price revisions and an increase in the number of services used per person from 1.8 to 2.0.

In fact, in October 2024, Netflix raised its prices in Japan, increasing the Standard with ads plan from 790 yen to 890 yen, and the Premium plan from 1,980 yen to 2,290 yen.

2025 was the year when this revision took full effect.

In other words, rather than an increase in new people, the same people are accepting price hikes and subscribing to one more service.

Although the MCF survey cannot be compared simply because the definitions are different, the movement of the video and entertainment market accelerating from 106% in 2024 to 114% in 2025 can potentially be explained by the same dynamics.

The disposable time spent on smartphones is not increasing, and Japan's population is not increasing either.

If the market is still growing, it is natural to think that what is increasing is not the number of users, but the unit price paid by each person and the number of contracts.

Future prospects will change significantly depending on whether you interpret the high growth rate as an expansion of demand or as evidence that there was still room to absorb price hikes.