Mobile Social Networking: A Growing Phenomenon

It’s no secret that online social networking communities have reached a near-legendary level of success over the past few years, with sites like MySpace, FaceBook, and Orkut attracting memberships in the tens of millions.

Like it or not, the broadband-connected PC has become one of chief communication platforms of modern times, as countless friendships, love affairs, and lucrative business connections are created each and every day on the world wide web.

The world wide web, however, no longer exists solely on conventional computers, and is becoming accessible from virtually anywhere, even on the smallest of wireless devices. It seems inevitable, therefore, that social networking, with its emphasis on instant, long distance communication, will become a primarily mobile phenomenon in the years to come.

This important paradigm shift seems to have started in earnest over the past year, 2006, in which America’s largest wireless carriers all jumped on the social networking bandwagon, rolling-out a variety of specialized mobile communication services. The largest U.S. carrier, Cingular Wireless, has embodied an especially determined attitude to this important new market.

Several months ago, the company’s executive directory of segment marketing and sponsorships, David Garver, was quoted as saying that Cingular will host as many social communities as possible in the future. “Will social network applications be some of the biggest applications Cingular sells? Yes,” Garver insisted.

Since then, Cingular has worked hard to promote Rabble, a $3/month mobile communication and information-sharing platform launched in partnership with San Diego-based Intercasting Corp. More recently, the carrier has also launched a fully functional version of MySpace for wireless devices.

This hot new service will soon be extended to work on 90% of Cingular handset models, allowing users to read and respond to their MySpace email messages, write blog entries, and upload photos onto their personal homepages, at a cost of just $2.95 per month.

In terms of revenue potential, $2.95 per user might not seem like much for the industry to get excited about, but Cingular and other wireless carriers have come up with a number of ways to turn these services into cash.

First and foremost, the availability of advanced wireless communication features will increase the mobile data bandwidth used by subscribers, creating additional revenue for carriers, and ultimately encouraging users to sign up for unlimited data plans.

Mobile search and banner advertising are also expected to be important revenue generators for businesses involved in the roll-out of mobile social networking, as big name advertisers begin to realize the value of promoting via the third screen.

Overall, it seems that strong all-round revenue will be a natural long-term consequence for whatever companies are best able to ride the growing wave of wireless social networking. Let the race continue…


Published by TeleClick Enterprises
Edited by Jeremy Maddock