New York - A majority (52%) of venture capitalists said in a recent survey that they believe venture capital investment in digital content creation will increase over the next two years, and 25% said they expect investments to rise more than 20%.

Conducted by KPMG, the poll of 300 venture capitalists, corporate executives and investment bankers also found that 59% expect to see more mergers and acquisitions in the coming year, with 18% predicting a jump of more than 20%.

As for which content sector would receive the largest share of these investments, 31% said mobile applications, while 26% said "technology enablers" and 20% indicated social media services.

In the mobile sector, predictions for the top applications in 2009 were social networking (31%), gaming (20%), video (14%), music downloads (20%) and user-generated applications (10%).

Ninety percent of respondents believe mass adoption of mobile video will take off in the next five years, while 60% think it will happen within the next three years.

In the social media realm, 93% said they believe social networks will significantly monetize their online viewership in five years or less.

Just under half (48%) think advertising will monetize social media, while 19% believe, much like texting, it is the transport.

"The population of consumers who prefer to receive content via their mobile devices is a rapidly growing segment of the market, and VCs have shown keen interest," said KPMG partner Brian Hughes.

"We've seen new funds created specifically for the mobile sector, and social media also continues to gain traction."

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