Mobile Social Networking – It’s Not a Fad!

Taking the benefit of hind-sight, a survey was published 18 months back which clearly stated that Netizens would use the mobile to not just alert friends or family, but more. And this activity, which was unclear and termed more at that time is slowly becoming clear and has become one of the basic drivers for telecom growth in our country.

I have no hesitations in admitting now that Mobile Based Social Networking is not a Fad. And, to know a fact, Mr. Jean Laurent Poitou, MD for Accenture‘s Electronics & High-Tech Industry Group seconded my thought when he said, “The next wave of technology will be driven by connected devices. Mobile connectivity has reached people the fastest of all technologies and the wave of mobile internet will be driven by social networking.”

If you are a close follower of what’s going on in the web arena nowadays, you would have come across many such reports in the recent past which have audaciously reported that ‘Mobile Social Networking set for explosive growth’. One of the most eye-catching words today is growth, and indeed it catches our attention. Jokes apart, the reason I am stressing more on surveys here is to prove the fact that the consumer has come to terms on how to use technology for numerous benefits. Another news article revealed that -

1. 52% of respondents said that they use their device to access some mobile Internet services.
2. 55% of those said that they mostly used it for emailing or social networking (39% for email, 16% for mobile social networking).

And, believe me, my intellectual guesswork says that statistics are not misleading here. And, if you want to guess which are the two most visited sites through a mobile device; the answer is Facebook & MySpace. Well, there were no prizes for guessing. Need proof, of-course you should ask, and here it is.

Coming back to the present, there would be a certain change to the way the mobile service providers are running their businesses. For sure, 3D for content would be the next wave of technology, which would engulf 3D-based consumption and selling, deemed set to in the next half a decade. As a result, the business models are speculated to change foreseeing better competition and narrow revenue streams. Specifically, the shift in Indian market to applications and services would act as a significant growth driver.

Sure, you might dis-agree and start the age old rant of the ‘Great Indian Rural Consumer’ and he still being a technology pessimist. But, deep down you know that the time lag between global trends in the developed markets and India is on a downward trend. The end consumers are instrumental in creating the demand here; Mobile Banking and Micro-Finance acting as facilitators to it. The distribution channels that companies have in place would be the key driver in reaching the consumer with their most suited service offering in the right place. You better note, the mobile companies and service providers.

In return, the mobile Operators have a few benefits as well -

• Access Charges
• Increased Mobile Internet Adoption
• Differentiation
• Increased Retention
• Advertising Revenues

TelecomCircle presents a nice write-up explaining the above points in a very detailed form here. And, just in case if you are wondering, about a list of Mobile Social Networking sites and communities; and their usage details, this link would be useful for you.

I repeat, without the least of doubt, “Mobile Social Networking is Not a FAD”.

Case Closed…!!