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Italian mobile content company Buongiorno released financial results for the first half of the year today, reporting that both revenues and operating profits are up in the six-month period, but cautioned that the economic climate may hurt results in the short term. The company did not break down results for the second quarter. Andrea Casalini, Buongiorno's (BIT: BNG) CEO: "We believe that the mobile entertainment market will continue to offer significant long-term opportunities, despite the less buoyant short term outlook, resulting from our period of adjustment and macroeconomic conditions. Release. During the year, Buongiorno increased its presence in new markets, such as South Africa, Australia and Argentina. In the first half, its biggest markets in terms of revenues were Iberia, the UK, Italy and the Mediterranean, France, the U.S., Latin America and Germany and Austria. In the year's first-half, the company reported revenues of $232 million (EUR 158 million), an increase of 84 percent compared to the prior year. The company reported that earnings before some expenses, or EBITDA, was $24 million (EUR 16.3 million), an increase of 96 percent compared to the year earlier. Operating profit was also up 74 percent, and the company implemented some cost savings goals that resulted in a savings in personnel costs. The company today confirmed the revised 2008 forecast it tweaked back in July. Buongiorno expects revenues for 2008 to be as much as $491 million (EUR 335 million) and EBITDA of up to $58.7 million (EUR 40 million). Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.

A trio of new research reports detail the dramatic and swift rise of mobile in terms of subscription growth, mobile web usage and mobile payments for goods downloaded to mobile phones. On Pace For 5.2 Billion Mobile Subscribers By 2011 Last year there were three times as many people using mobile phones than land lines worldwide (3.3 billion and 1.1 billion respectively), according to Infonetics Research. Mobile subscriptions jumped 31 percent year-over-year while land line subscriptions declined 5 percent in the same period. Latin America and the Caribbean are the only regions where land lines are expected to grow. Strong growth, no surprise, is expected to be primarily driven by voice services in Brazil, Russia, India and China – countries where double-digit GSM subscriber growth rates are common, the firm concluded. Based on the current rate of growth, it predicts there will be 5.2 billion mobile subscribers by 2011, at which time there will also be one wireless broadband subscriber for every four wireline broadband subscribers. ( Release ). 1.7 Mobile Web Users By 2013 The number of subscribers using the internet on their mobile phones is expect to nearly triple from 577 million today to more than 1.7 billion by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research. Social networking, user-generated content, instant messaging, location-based services and search and discovery are all driving a more open environment where users can share, collaborate and exploit content free from carrier restrictions, the firm wrote. Asia is expected to be the largest market for mobile web where almost 416 million users are anticipated to be surfing the internet on mobile phones in five years. Currently, 190 million users are accessing the mobile web there in those regions. Juniper Research predicts South America holds the "greatest untapped potential for mobile web" because of relatively low wireline broadband penetration in those countries. ( Release ). 2.1 Billion Mobile...

RealNetworks ( NSDQ: RNWK ), which helps carriers sell ringtones, ringback tones and full-track music, believes the continuing trend in mobile content is to provide a bite-sized or "snackable" content experience, whereas the TV and PC will be the venues for longer, richer, high-definition experiences, according to Analisa Roberts, RealNetwork's senior director of market planning and analysis. That's not a new concept in the industry, however, the thinking has started to get muddled with new entrants, like mobile broadcast TV, which offers full-length shows and movies, and other content providers that see phones with big screens and faster network speeds as away to move everything from TV or online over to mobile without any alterations. To be sure, RealNetworks provides the range when it comes to music, by selling slices of music that are used for ringtones and ringback tones and also full-track music downloads. Here's a snapshot of their thoughts on the matter: On recent developments: About two years ago, RealNetworks acquired South Korean-based WiderThan for $350 million for its mobile music expertise and then more recently it bought Sony NetServices for $9 million to gain a European mobile music foothold. Last month, it gained recognition for launching an exclusive deal for Rhapsody with Verizon Wireless that includes both full-track and subscription music services. Lots more, including thoughts on mobile music, after the jump … Mobile Music by the Numbers: -- Ringback tones: Ringback tones make up the bulk of RealNetwork's business when counting subscribers. As of Q1, they had 16 carrier deployments in 10 countries with 28 million mobile subscribers, which mostly have subscriptions. "Our ringback tone subscriber base continues to grow at a great rate....It's strong in the U.S. and Asia, but Europe is a focus and we are seeing traction there." To give an idea, 10.5 percent of the global subscriber base has a ringback tone subscription...

The Top Gear juggernaut rolls on. Once a humble but controversial BBC autos review show, BBC Worldwide is now cashing in on accidental US popularity with Australian and American spinoffs, bigger billing on BBC America and making topgear.com top amongst its new " passion sites ". Next is a mobile phone game, the broadcaster has announced. Players will get to race a lap on a virtual version of the test track driven weekly on TV by The Stig , with lap times logged like on the show and a range of stunts available (this is the show that played soccer on ice using Suzukis, for the uninitiated). Though the game is commissioned from Gameloft by the BBC's overseas and profit-making wing BBC Worldwide, it will be available only in the UK. Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.

-- Smaato announced at the Mobile Marketing Forum that it's partnering with Ad Infuse to provide advertisers, publishers, and operators advertising within applications. In addition, Ad Infuse's iPhone advertising solution will be integrated with Smaato's in-application advertising platform for developers to use in conjunction with the iPhone SDK. The companies have also expanded to Europe. Release can be found here . -- New York-based Ringleader Digital announced tdoay that HopStop will use Ringleader to serve ads over its mobile Web site. HopStop will now be able to let advertisers target advertisements based on a users location, and without the need for GPS. HopStop.com offers consumers directions using public transit and other forms of transportation, and serves 1.7 million visits by users a month. The ads will be able to to relate to a user's physical address based on information provided, or on the nature of the place the user searches for, such as restaurants or museums. -- innerActive Smart Media and Buongiorno announced a partnership to offer its customers free ad-supported content, such as games, instant messaging and video. HotSMS, part of Buongiorno (BIT: BNG) Marketing Services, will offer free ad-funded entertainment directly to its members. With the help of innerActive, Buongiorno will also be able to offer HotSMS.com subscribers the choice of free content, in return for viewing contextual advertisements and product placements that are embedded in the content. In trials, innerActive's platform 40 percent click-through rates and ten times more downloads than for paid-for games. Also in trials, they said 78 percent of people who played a game had never downloaded a game before. Release. Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download

-- Glu unveils "Mystery Case" game : Today, Glu Mobile ( NSDQ: GLUU ) is unveiling "Mystery Case Files: Agent X," a game designed and developed by Big Fish Games for mobile phones in North America. Mystery Case games has become a franchise, with more than 1.8 million units sold. In this game, players are virtual detectives who solve mysteries by finding hidden clues. The game, found here , includes weekly updates that provide fresh content. Users can also post high scores to compete against others. -- SendMe to deliver content to IAC visitors : SendMe Mobile is announcing that it will start to deliver top ringtones, wallpapers and games to visitors of the IAC ( NSDQ: IACI ) mobile web pages that offer premium mobile content. The sites include Mobile by Citysearch or Evite Mobile. -- Greystripe teams up with Sega for classic games : Greystripe , which distributes ad-supported mobile games, said it is now working with Sega. Greystripe will start with three classics: Sonic Jump; Afterburner II and Golden Axe. Greystripe will deliver the games to system including 50 catalog partners in addition to GameJump.com. Sega said it will monetize their games via Greystripe's AdWRAP advertising network, which includes brands like Diet Coke, Yahoo! ( NSDQ: YHOO ), New Line Cinema and eBay. -- Momail launches email support : Stockholm-based Momail plans to announce today that it's launching email support for major email accounts including Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and other ISP mail in the UK. With Momail, emails are automatically rendered for the user's specific mobile phone, and delivered to one inbox on the phone. Momail says it supports more than 1,000 devices. Users can have unlimited email accounts, and all responses appear like they were sent from that person's original email address. Momail is free and its available in the UK, and several other European countries.