Since the late 1990s, mobile content has become an increasingly important market worldwide. The South Koreans are the worlds Leaders in Mobile Content and 3-G mobile networks Japanese, followed closely by the Europeans, are heavy users of their mobile phones and have been attaining custom mobile content for their devices for years. In fact, mobile phone use has begun to exceed the use of PCs in some countries. In the United States and Canada, mobile phone use and the accompanying use of mobile content has been slower to gain traction because of political issues and open networks do not exist in America.

On current trends, mobile phone content will play an increasing role in the lives of millions across the globe in the years ahead, as users will depend on their mobile phones to keep in touch not only with their friends but with world news, sports scores, the latest movies and music, and more.

Mobile content is usually downloaded through WAP sites, but new methods are on the rise. In Italy, 800,000 people are registered users to Passa Parola, an application that allows users to browse a big database for mobile content and directly download it to their handsets. This tool can also be used to recommend content to others, or send content as a gift.^[13]

An increasing number of people are also beginning to use applications like Qik to upload and share their videos from their cell phone to the internet.^{[citation needed]} Mobile phone software like Qik allows user to share their videos to their friends through emails, SMS and even social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.