And the number of mobile social networks keeps on growing

If you thought social networking was a huge phenomenon, wait till you see the next generation of social networking – mobile social networking. Social networking has gone mobile big time and a healthy number of mobile users regularly visit social networking sites from their mobile phone.

Social networking giants like MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster have realized the enormous potential of mobile social networking and have released the mobile versions of their sites. However, the story doesn’t end there. In fact, it just begins there. Plenty of companies have started mobile social networks which have become tremendously popular with people.

First it started off as a new phenomenon and when mobile users showed great interest in them, mobile social networking sites became hugely popular. As a result, we now have a big list of mobile social networking sites and most importantly, the list keeps on growing. Check out a detailed list of mobile social networks here.

Categories: Mobile Social Networking.

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Vodafone acquires mobile social networking company ZYB

A not-so-popular Danish company called ZYB has been in the news for the past few days and a lot of websites are talking about this company fervently. Just what is this ZYB and what has it done to garner such an attention? Simple. It got acquired by Vodafone for approximately $50 million.

Here’s a little something on ZYB. It stated off as a backup service for mobile phones in 2006. The service, which is still available free of cost, allows you to save your mobile phone contacts and other information in ZYB’s servers. In the event of losing your mobile phone or losing the data in your mobile phone, this can be really helpful.

Now, back in 2008, the company has made an important change in the service and has turned it into a mobile social network. Now, you can have a separate profile page in this social network, just like you have one in Facebook, MySpace, and Orkut. You can add photos, add friends, send comments, and build your network easily.

Vodafone, by acquiring ZYB, has shown everyone which way the market is going and I’m sure we can see plenty of big players go the same way soon.

The concept of social networking on mobile phones, or mobile social networking, has been catching up with people big time and a lot of companies have realized its imminent potential. The result – you have plenty of strategic partnerships. I’ve already blogged about mobile social networking and how it can become the next big thing and incidents like this just reaffirm my faith time and again.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

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Mobile social networking rapidly gaining popularity

Social networking is the in-thing now and it’s evident from the number of people who access MySpace and Facebook dutifully every day. In fact, people are so much into these sites that they want to be connected all the time. However, you can’t carry a laptop all the time and you can’t go to a browsing center ten times a day to update your status in your Facebook profile and to catch up with your friends. So, what do you do? Simple – you access these sites in your mobile phone.

The practice of accessing social networking sites on mobile phones, called mobile social networking, is becoming more and more popular with mobile users these days. The biggest reason is the iPhone. It literally changed the way people perceived mobile phones and now iPhone users top the chart in mobile internet usage.

According to statistics, more than 85% of iPhone users access the internet from their phones. This is an incredible number, to say the least. Smart phone users come second in this list. People, especially young ones, who have internet facility in their phone, access social networking sites regularly.

A report from Nielson says that 1.7% of all mobile users in the U.K. visited social networking sites on their cell phones regularly. It’s 1.6% in the U.S., 0.8% in Spain, 0.6% in Italy, and 0.2% in Germany. Experts predict that these numbers will more than double in about two years and mobile social networking will become popular big time.

MySpace, followed by Facebook, is the most accessed social networking site on mobile phones. In December 2007 alone, the site had close to 3 million visits from mobile users. In the U.S. and all over Europe, there are tens of thousands of regular mobile users who log into MySpace regularly. We’ve already seen how popular MySpace can be, but still these numbers are incredible.

I think these numbers will have a significant impact on mobile service prices in the coming days. Thanks to this overwhelming popularity of mobile social networking and other similar things, operators might be tempted to cut down the rates for data plans. One example for this would be Vodafone UK. In its latest monthly plans, it has added unlimited internet access as a standard feature. We might as well see other companies follow suit.

Categories: Apple iPhone, All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

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The road ahead for mobile videos

There is a lot of talk about mobile video and how it could be the next big thing and so on. But there are two primary issues that stand in the way of mobile videos.

1. While watching videos might be a cool experience on Apple iPhone or a Nokia N95, it may not be so in a low-end mobile phone with a tiny little screen. Unfortunately, the number of high-end phones in the market is very low when compared to the number of low-end phones.

2. Most of the data plans available with carriers today are quite costly and a normal mobile user might think twice before going for a video plan, as it might add a substantial amount to his otherwise normal mobile bill.

Interestingly, mobile video has been popular in Asia and Europe. The reasons are not hard to find. High-end mobile phone penetration in the Asian market is high and data plans are not as costly as they are in the US. Also, carriers in Europe and Asia have been proactive in implementing a lot of ideas to encourage mobile advertising as it might boost their revenues. In fact, carriers in Europe have even gone to the extent of offering mobile phone porn, or simply mobile porn, to customers which has resulted in large number of customers opting for mobile video plans which offer porn content.

While I certainly don’t expect porn from carriers in the US, I do hope they do something to make mobile videos affordable for subscribers. Already, a large number of high-end mobile users don’t rely on their carriers for mobile videos, as they can access it easily on websites like YouTube, MySpace, and Mywaves, all of which are easily accessible from a high-end phone. So, carriers need to come up with affordable mobile video subscription plans to tap this market that can boost their revenue considerably.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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News Corp to join Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo?

Remember Microsoft’s multi billion dollar bid for Yahoo? The move made headlines all over the world and things got slowed down when Yahoo announced that it is not interested in the offer unless Microsoft raises its bid. Now, the story has taken a new turn. According to sources, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation might join hands with Microsoft in its bid.

If Rupert Murdoch could pull it off, it would be a terrific union. Just imagine – Microsoft, MySpace (which belongs to News Corp.), and Yahoo on the same side. That would be one hell of a force to be reckoned with.

I think such a union is very much possible. Yahoo’s main reason for ignoring Microsoft’s offer is that it feels that the offer is too low to be accepted. With a powerful company like News Corporation on its side, Microsoft will be able to raise its bid considerably and thus Yahoo might be tempted to accept the offer. If it does happen, it will put Google under tremendous pressure and its number one spot in the internet might be under threat. Moreover, such a union could also have a significant impact on the mobile web space, as all three – Microsoft, Yahoo, and MySpace – are somehow interested in the mobile web space.

Nothing has been decided so far and it will take quite some time for the concerned parties to arrive at a mutually agreeable decision. I’ll keep a close eye on this issue and will keep you guys posted. Meanwhile, feel free to tell me what you feel about this possible alliance.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Yahoo, Microsoft.

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