The Next Turf

Post, blog, comment, tag, scrap, tweet, etc, have become
common vocabulary among the youth today. Social networking is the latest bug
that has bitten the youth in India, and even the elderly have caught up with the
trend. Any brand which aims to engage, interact with the youth, and attract
maximum brand traction cannot afford to exclude social media from their media
marketing plan.

Another Big Opportunity

With ever plunging ARPUs and a tough challenge in retaining existing
customers, mobile operators are scouting for different ways to remain
profitable. So what is the next step to uproot customer churn and increase ARPUs?
The solution lies in innovative value added services that will keep customers
and involve them with the brand at a greater level.

Engaging or involving users on operator platform can prove
to be the right plug, in this space, to address some of the issues faced by
mobile operators. Mobile social networking can be described as a platform for
communication between individuals sharing common interests and concerns, for
easy interaction to keep oneself updated and connected to the outside world
through mobile phones. It has the potential to become one of the most vibrant
and popular forms of networking media among the youth. By 2012, it is expected
that there will be around 428 mn users of mobile social networking globally,
generating 19.7 bn. India is not far behind in catching up on this global
phenomenon, and it has grown by 50% in India in the last year.

Mobile social networking is not limited to accessing the
mobile version of web 2.0 social network provider on one's handset, but it
provides networking websites using one's cellphone or PDA. Development of a
mobile social networking site specially designed and dedicated for mobile phones
is the next level of this trend. This is the potential tool that operators can
use to get customers and retain them for a long-term due to their personal
networking association with the operator.

The Driver

The rise of mobile social networking is a global phenomenon which has been
fueled by the desire to stay abreast with everything occurring anywhere,
anytime, and India will not be excluded from this trend. The key trigger buttons
for the popularity of this trend in India can be easily attributed to the low
Internet penetration levels, convenience in accessing Internet on mobile phones,
and youth's propensity to adapt to latest technologies. Low Internet penetration
in contrast to ever-increasing mobile penetration levels, will make it easier
for youth to connect on social networking sites on their mobile phones than
logging into them from PCs/laptops. The convenience of access on-the-go, and the
fact that youth live in-the-moment, constantly sharing bits of their life with
their peers has the potential to make mobile social networking a hot trend in
the near future.

As per a Global Nielsen report released in 2009 on social
networking, people under eighteen years of age are forming a small part of of
the social networking sites and blogging audience. The report also states that
in terms of sheer audience numbers, people in the age group of thirty-five to
forty years are the key target demographics in terms of growth and expected to
widen with the popularity of mobile social networking services. Furthermore,
there is an addition of almost twice as many fifty to sixty-four year old
visitors.

Broadband connections are expected to reach 100 mn by
2012, while mobile subscriptions are expected to cross 500 mn by 2010. Thus, the
mobile device today offers the capability for youth to connect with their
friends on social networking platform, wherever they are, thereby not
restricting their access from their home/PC alone. According to JuxtConsult,
usage of Internet on PCs still remains dominant, but it is fast changing.
Although we have witnessed a 6% increase in usage of Internet on mobiles, we
still have a long way to go. The experience of accessing the net on PCs is far
superior than that on mobile phones. However, there is a rapid development on
mobile phone technology, and this coupled with deployment of 3G services will
definitely propel its usage in the near future.

Most of the operators have devised an easy route of
cashing in on the social networking hype by availing popular sites-Facebook,
Orkut, Twitter on their VAS portals. But that is not the definition of mobile
social networking services (SNS). It is about creating a dedicated social
networking platform on the mobile phone operator's network.

Monetizing MSN

Every innovation, to sustain itself needs to support itself with a viable
business model. The good part is, we will soon witness monetizing of mobile
social networking services with subscription channels coming up, and
implementation of vertical mobile interactive channels. While this will ensure
continuous innovations and specialized offerings to consumers, it will also
bring in steady bucks for operators and VAS players. Mobile social networking
services 'owned' and operated by mobile network operators can be strongly
integrated with VAS back-end services (eg WAP, RBT, SMS, voice). The new
paradigm in mobile 2.0 will witness mobile content and networking 2.0 moving
together. In the future, mobile social networking services will act as
additional capitalization with advertising and m-commerce. It can also represent
an innovative step towards implementation of a new 'media channel' that
encourages convergence of communication needs of the subscriber base.

Although mobile SNS may present the next wave of
innovation and opportunity for telecom players, it comes with its own share of
challenges. The key challenges in mass implementation of a mobile social network
lie in scaling the present network to required levels, tackling flash floods of
information access, filtering false alarms, and preventing misuse of the system.
Privacy of users is a major concern that needs to be taken care of, as the
location of a cell phone user is easy to determine.

Despite all challenges and concerns, mobile social
networking is well positioned to be the next big trend in VAS space. With the
introduction of 3G, higher speed, better experience with mobile Internet, more
and more operators will come up with their dedicated mobile SNS options for
subscribers.

It won't be incorrect to say that the next battleground in
the VAS space will be the launch of dedicated mobile social networking services
by various mobile operators and consumers lapping up the same, thereby creating
new Facebooks, Orkuts and Twitters of the mobile world.

Simone Ranucci Brandimarte

The author is co-CEO & COO, Buongiorno, Hong Kong

vadmail@cybermedia.co.in