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Mobile Social Networking in India on the rise?
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The latest of the Social Networking Sites to go mobile in India are Fropper.
Fropper have introduced MobiFUN powered by Mauj 7007 service. Mauj is also part of the People Interactive Group.
What can you do with this Mobile service?
Well Fropper says it’ll help you search and add new friends, scrap and send messages to your friends and you can even receive SMS alerts for new scraps/messages etc.
Haven’t tested the service out – but why would I want an SMS alert that I’ve received a Scrap? I hope they meant – You’ll be able to read the scrap via your SMS (Which might not be possible because of the Character limit on SMS’s).
Birthday Reminders seems to be a service which one wouldn’t mind using.
Now let’s look at mobile social networking with a broader perspective…
MoCoNews shares some figures from a report on Mobile UGC by Juniper Research.
User-generated content is predicted to grow from generating revenues of $572 million this year to over $5.7 billion in 2012. The note-worthy face is that Social Networking Sites will account for 50% of this amount.
Some other figures:
- People using Social Networks are going to grow from the current 14 million mark to around 600 million by 2012.
- Downloads from social networking sites are currently around the 200 million mark which is set to grow to over 9 billion in the next five years.
In a country like India, where Mobile penetration exceeds PC penetration and will continue to do so, accessing the internet from the mobile is definitely going to get more and more popular.
Let’s look at mobile offerings by some current players in the Indian Social Network scene:
MingleBox – They have yet to introduce their mobile platform, but something’s definitely going to be launched soon…
“MingleMobile is something which users will able to see very soon where they can just stay connected to what’s happening on MingleBox, blog from their mobile, upload photos from their camera phones, send announcements of blogs to all their friends and all of that just from wherever you are from your mobile,” said Kavita Iyer (CEO, MingleBox) in a interview with Kamla Bhatt at PodTech.
Well Sumir Chadha (MD, Sequoia India) doesn’t consider Fropper and Sequoia as competitors, saying MingleBox and Fropper have very different focuses and very different user bases. Well perhaps they’ll have different mobile offerings too?
Yaari – Yaari were one of the first of the local players to go mobile but somehow it just didn’t pick up much.
Prerna Gupta considers Mobile Advertising as an integral part of Yaari’s revenue model.
“Our revenue model is primarily based on advertising and that’s built online and mobile advertising as well. Secondarily, we will be — along with our mobile feature, we will offer some services as a premium, so premium SMS will be another way in which we derive revenue.”
Currently you can use the Yaari Mobile platform to interact with your network. This is done via their long code and the user just pays SMS charges to the operator. Another feature is you can send SMS’s from the any number in India.
iBiBo - They have a mobile strategy in place as well. You can set up polls, comment and post on blogs and even share photos via WAP.
The recent acquisition of a 30 per cent stake in ACL Wireless (A company which runs the decently popular mobile social networking site – Frenzo) ensures that iBiBo have some big mobile plans for India too.
DesiMartini – They have a pretty simple Twitter like funda. Micro-blogging of sorts…
You set up your account, choose friends you want to add to your mobile network. Each time you send an SMS to DesiMartini, it’ll get sent to all the friends in your network. Similarly you can subscribe to updates from your friends.
IndyaRocks – When a social networking site uses a Mobile Phone graphic in their logo – you can be pretty sure that they are serious about the scope of Mobile networking.
You can post notes, scrap friends (Graffiti Wall), set a wide array notifications and alerts etc…
They have a Group SMS option too via which you can send a message to all your friends.
2 other Mobile Networking options are:
SMSGupShup - Set up your group. Invite your friends. Send 1 SMS and it is sent to many.
The MOBS service by MyToday.com is similar but they offer a little more..
While SMSGupShup is a one to many platform. MyToday allows One to Many, Some to Many and Many to Many options.
The WATblog SMS Alerts is powered by MyToday. To join SMS: START WATBLOG to 757585.
Related Posts:
Nokia launches ‘Mosh’ - Mobile Social Networking Website
Nokia acquires Social Media Sharing site Twango for $100 million
Mobio - The phone is meant for LIVING and not just for talking and SMSing!
MIH India (ibibo.com) invests $12.3 Million in ACL Wireless. Bullish about Mobile Social Networking
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boss..u guys write very bad articles..learn from techcruch, write short and to the point. Also, do some analysis in the end, no point in informing users about the features they can find out on their own.
Wow! Missed you Poseidon. Welcome back…
This country would be owning the Web 2.0 world if users did their own analysis in finding out features on offer in various sites.
And you definitely don't read much of TechCrunch if you pass a comment like - Short! for them
@Poseidon,
Hold down sir. These WAT Guys are burning Day and Night Oil to bring best of their Efforts and its not easy task of doing such things. They do lot of internal meetings before posting and one Important thing is that they are posting it here absolutely FREE, do you see any ads here aaaaaah as you see bunch of ads on TC.
Its not an easy task to crawl informations, do statistical analysis, getting the market size and so on. We should instigate these smart Guys rather than blaming like you.
TC[mike] has lot of experience but these guys are very young [below 27 age] and we should appreciate their efforts.
Think before speak, Poseidon: I think you landed on a wrong bus stop.
Have you reviewed http://www.zooped.com social network yet?
Boss..age is not an excuse.You have to be excellent not good.If you go through your article again there is an information overload. Ideally the information should have been processed by them and conclusion should have been presented.No point in quoting minglebox and yaari CEOs. The author could have easily stated that they are planning to lauch or have launched something similar. You have to keep it simple and short so that even a dumb reader like me can easily understand. I was somewhere lost in between. BTW, TC articles entice the reader to read more.
Mahesh, chill man!.BTW, I don't use buses :$
@ Poseidon -
Not that I am a big fan of either WAT or TC (i read them both nevertheless, since they provide a useful service) - but in the spirit of blogging - why dont you post your response on your own blog and track back. If you disagree so strongly, use a blog, please.
Your work is good. You'll have your own style and are an authority of sorts.
I have found more well-rounded stories in the Indian Web 2.0 space here, than anywhere else across any media.
Keep up the good work and always strive for better..