Comments on: Potential of Mobile Social Networking

By: Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:26:43 +0000

Considering that almost all the recent internet users are mobile phone users as well, there is an opportunity of getting the current online social network users to mobile phones which in itself is over 738 million people.

By: saurabh

saurabh — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:31:11 +0000

this is a really good article. it enlightens the topic clearly and provides a wider prospective of social networking.

By: Mohit Agrawal

Mohit Agrawal — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:12:07 +0000

Hi Gaston,

Thanks for your comments. I am from India and there are currently around 35-40 million internet users on PC and the PC base in India is around 55-60 million. Compare this to mobile, it has a base of 415 million an dout of these 415 million, about 100 million phones are GPRS/EDGE enabled. There are 35-40 million GPRS users though most of them download music and games from operator portals but the fact is that they are GPRS users. Now that the operators in India have stopped charging rentals for GPRS and encourge people to use GPRS for surfing net, I am sure there would be greater adoption of content light applications like social networking. Given the large base of mobile phones, I have no doubt that mobile social networking usage would soon exceed the pc based online social networking usage.

- Mohit

By: Gaston Nomade

Gaston Nomade — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:20:47 +0000

Nice article in general. Thanks!

I respectfully disagree with the particular opinion that developing countries (some or any relevant quantity) will see mobile phone internet access before PC internet access..

If this is a fact, I’d like to know “what” developing countries will see mobile phone internet access before PC internet access?

And if any, how relevant that really is?

In developing countries, the service is so expensive than it doesn’t make a difference whether or not that hypothesis makes sense to someone.

On the other hand, if this referred to the value of sending text messages only.. that’s a different story.
Regards,
Gaston.

By: ramesh avula

ramesh avula — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:37:52 +0000

Hi Nice comments Verity Technologies is a Mobile Services Company in the domain of Authentication and Identity Services. It has historically been a provider in the Mobile Value Added Services and credited with participating in the setting up of the world’s largest and most sophisticated Data Service vending mechanism at Reliance Communications, India. Telecom, Financial Services (Electronic Commerce + Plastic Money) and Entertainment are among the 3 fastest growing market segments. Verity is positioned to harness the power of the mobile medium to deliver customer value around Entertainment and Financial Services. It has access to over 200 million mobile subscribers in India through its Mobile Operator Relationships. Also its content Brand ‘Mocazo’ is the first of its kind initiative that uses the power of Social Networking. Its ongoing relationship for service offerings with leading organizations across the globe reiterates Verity’s technical expertise and domain knowledge encompassing both mobile & internet technologies. For more details on Verity log on to www.veritytech.com

By: Antonio Peña

Antonio Peña — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:25:20 +0000

Sorry I make a mistake this is the presentation http://www.slideshare.net/momobuenosaires/weegoh-...

By: Antonio Peña

Antonio Peña — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:23:37 +0000

Hi all, I present you a WEEGOH a great mobile startup based in geo locate social networking born is Argentina that present in the last MObile Monday Buenos Aires. http://www.slideshare.net/ikensolutions/mooga-son...

By: Pallab Sen

Pallab Sen — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:40:51 +0000

Thanks for the nice insights. While I agree to your point Mohit about mobile adoption and others comments on costs coming down, but I think the key challenge is 3 fold.

1. there has to be an aggregator who reaches all the popular social networking providers.
2. build a common platform which the telcos can directly offer.
3. revenue sharing model – i know it is not very complex, but when we consider the multiple social networking platform providers and their already associated ad aggregators and when telcos also want to push their associated ads, the space becomes cluttered with too many players and opex is higher.

By: Rajat Harlalka

Rajat Harlalka — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:52:14 +0000

The market for social networking in general is experimenting, both with identifying the optimal combination of features and functions, and with developing sustainable operational models. Evidence for the former can be seen in the astounding proliferation of sites that differ only in a technological tweak or new feature, and in the tendency for established sites to add features proven successful by their competitors.

It will not be possible for social networking sites to survive indefinitely with the facilities that they are currently offering. Barriers to entry are very low. Unlike, for example, search sites, the current technological capability of successful social networking sites can easily be duplicated.

At the same time, it will not be easy for a single site to be all things to all people, thanks in part to the impact of search in defining priorities for a given site. I guess we will have a healthy population of content-based and special-interest sites to continue thriving well into the next decade. Acquisitions will continue, as search sites look to strengthen their positions and media properties look to establish new relationships with their audience in a post-broadcast world

By: Manoj Kandasamy

Manoj Kandasamy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:19:01 +0000

Hello Mohit,

I see your topic in 2 perspectives. 1) Access the existing social networking sites over mobile. Which has no differentiators! Here mobile becones an option to check their updates.

2) An facebook kind of application in mobile. This is where the next buzz is! For instance Vodafone has com up with a geo tagging and social networking over mobile (i lost the link for the article, will upadate you once i find that). the challenge here is to what extent we can make users to be connected to their peers!

I’m part of a mobile solutions company called Telibrahma. We are launching a location based social networking application called “BluHive”. We have a 1000+ network of bluetooth zones in India, US, UK and Spain.

Using BluHive a user in Barista Bangalore can chat and send scrap, gift an mCoupon to an user in Barista Mumbai!

For more details please visit http://www.telibrahma.com and http://www.blufimedia.com

Good day,

Manoj Kandasamy.

By: Darren Paterson

Darren Paterson — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:10:03 +0000

Hi Mohit, what I find most encouraging is the impact that smartphones have had on mobile web interaction.. roughly trebling the usage of those on non-smartphones. As more handset manufacturers race to emulate Apple’s success, the choice, availability and price of smartphones will fall quickly and reach critical mobile mass in the near future. With more purpose-built phones such as INQ for Facebook, I believe the user experience will continue to evolve..( it still has a long way to go..) and social networking among other apps will benefit..

but then again, as Sally said.. you never know in this space what’s around the corner

By: Anshumaan Bansal

Anshumaan Bansal — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:32:28 +0000

Mohit,

Thanks for sharing these insights.

On internet social networks, I keep in touch with my friends all over the world, but have never used such communities on mobile. I think ‘cost’ can be an important factor determining mass adoption. Can you please explain how are end users charged for mobile networking, is it the same as the cost of sending SMS, MMS?

Can the serivce be made free for end users for any amount of interactions, and the content and service providers earn through advertisements, like on internet?

Anshumaan

By: Sally Croft

Sally Croft — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:36:25 +0000

I liked your question and considering the age of technology we are living in nothing is impossible..!! Five years back from now, how many of us were aware of anything like social media/networking? So mobile networking can be phenomenal in coming time…you never know.

http://www.studentloaninfo.org/blog/

By: JamesD

JamesD — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:30:33 +0000

Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting

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