Mobile Social Networking

200 million plus mobile phone users in India and still rising. One instrument you take with you all the time. This is future. No, this is the present.
SMS is big, mobile social media is the next big thing if the trends are to be looked at in the US.

Reliance has already launched mobile blogging in India. It will not be far when social media networks start ruling the “mobile” roost? Marketers should be proactive and read the signs.

Read the eMarketer article

8 comments for “Mobile Social Networking

  1. June 1, 2008 at 8:30 pm

    Agree, mobile social networking is on the rise, but it’s a long way from reaching its full potential. I have gone through a couple of mobile social networks out there and they are nowhere near my expectations. So I decided to list down a few scenarios they need to fulfill.
    http://sachendra.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/what-i-want-from-my-mobile-social-network/

  2. June 2, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    Thats an exhaustive list of scenarios. But these will be there sooner than one thinks. Have you facebook on Blackberry. I am hooked on to it so are many of my friends…

  3. June 4, 2008 at 11:47 am

    I am still worried about the backend of all these mobile social networking applications. Mobile internet still have to go a long way ahead from the early adopters. SMS would be the cheapest, and will have the maximum reach. Can we think of a socilal networking application which uses SMS as the communication device?

  4. June 4, 2008 at 1:40 pm

    Well, I do believe that all the basic services and commerce would eventually move to the smart phone/ PDA.
    However, the social networking scene might be a little slower to take off. For one – rich media delivery on the mobile phone leaves much to be desired in terms of the experience. I mean – there is only so much enjoyment you can have watching a video on a 5-inch screen!
    Social networking itself has a long way to go…hence, a little skeptical about its extensive proliferation on a mobile.

    My 2 cents.

  5. June 4, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    Hi Shibili and Sandeep,

    Agree with you that the mobile backend is not in place and till that is up it will be sometime for Mobile internet to pick up. However, the factors which will push mobile internet and social media in particular will be
    1) Mobile network already laid and the push from the govt. (I am speaking about India in this case) which this sector is getting the speed would be much faster than the growth of broadband connectivity (which has been languishing for quite sometime).
    2) Handsets & VAS (which are getting available & cheaper). The new handsets with big screens and innovations within, launch of iPhone/blackberry in India. The prices are coming down for these by the day.
    3) The demographics of the majority of users – Young and hip who are hooked onto chat/email and Social Networking. This will be just convenient for them adopting this as compared to other features.
    4) With a mobile one is always in touch and online therefore makes the Social Networking bit even more engaging.

    These are My thots.

  6. June 5, 2008 at 1:39 pm

    yeah…thats true. The technology is not going to be such a deterrent towards m-networking.

    But, what is your take wrt social networking in general? I am talking more about the facebooks and orkuts here. Coz, in the end, you scrap, play, share stuff with a small network of friends who you meet every weekend for a drink, work with through the day and talk on the phone every other day. Or the guys who “want to make fraanships”!

    I feel that it is more of a slightly long fad/ flavour of the month, than something which will leave a lasting mark on the internet. As opposed to a higher involvement network like a wikipedia.

    (may be this is something for a entire blog post!)

  7. June 7, 2008 at 1:18 pm

    Sandeep, looking at the nos and the growth in social networking, I don’t think it is a fad. And therefore needs to be taken seriously from a marketer point of view.

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