Social Networking Watch: News on the Social Networking and Social Media Industry

Facebook: 425 Million Mobile Users And No Money

PC MAG - Feb 2 - Facebook's mobile apps are frequently among the most popular downloads in the Android Market and Apple App Store. Facebook's Wednesday IPO filing revealed that the company had ~425M monthly active users during December 2011, or about half of its worldwide user base. But while that 425M number might be impressive, it's not making Facebook any money at this point. "We currently do not show ads or directly generate any meaningful revenue from users accessing Facebook through our mobile products", Facebook said.

by Chloe Albanesius
See full article at PC Mag

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This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Orkut App Arrives On iPhone, iPad

MASHABLE – Jan 19 – Google-owned Brazilian social networking site Orkut has finally gone mobile, announcing its app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The app will allow users to post status updates, photos, and chat with others on the go. The announcement comes shortly after it was revealed that Facebook overtook Orkut as Brazil’s most popular social networking site in December. The app is now available for download in the Apple App Store.

by Samantha Murphy
See full article at Mashable

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Nearly 40% Of Facebook Use Is From Mobile Apps

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 29 - The number of monthly active users of Facebook’s mobile apps recently passed the 300M mark. This is primarily due to heavy use of the iOS and Android apps, but it also takes into account apps that run on BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Phone, iPad and feature phones. That number equates to ~40% of Facebook’s currently disclosed 800M active users.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Who Owns Your Twitter Account?

CNET NEWS - Dec 26 - Who really owns your Twitter account? That's the question at the heart of a lawsuit that could redefine the right of employers to seize and make use of employees' social-media accounts. For four years, writer Noah Kravitz produced reviews and video blogs for the mobile-phone site phonedog.com. During the same period, he also posted on Twitter and gathered 17K followers. When Kravitz left PhoneDog he continued using the account--with PhoneDog's blessing. Eight months after Kravitz lef, PhoneDog sued him, claiming that Kravitz's Twitter followers represented a customer list, that Kravitz had failed to relinquish the Twitter account when asked, and that he had therefore misappropriated trade secrets and interfered with PhoneDog's business to the tune of $340,000--$2.50 per follower per month.

by David Hamilton
See full article at CNet News

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Mobile Social Media Users To Reach 650m In 2011

MARKETWIRE - Dec 19 - A new report from Juniper Research finds that the continuing increase in smartphone adoption and the rise of geosocial networking will push the number of mobile social media users from 650M this year to 1.3 billion by 2016; more than the total number of social media users on all platforms today.

See full article at Marketwire

When It Comes To Mobile Devices, Focus Will Be On Location

WASHINGTON POST - Dec 12 - It’s almost impossible to separate the rise in location-based technologies from the popularity of smartphones. One locally developed smartphone app, called Sponto, promotes social gatherings by showing when users congregate in large numbers. The StrEats app, also being developed by locals, will track the District’s food trucks. But inherent in these technologies are questions about privacy, particularly when a consumer’s location is tracked by default or without his or her explicit consent.

by Steven Overly
See full article at Washington Post

Google To Add Local Deals To Google+ Mobile Check-ins

VENTURE BEAT - Dec 9 - A Google spokesperson confirmed that location-based deals will be coming to Google+ next week. The Google+ social network may be adding features to its mobile app that will allow users to claim deals when they check in at locations.  One year ago this week, Groupon rejected a $6 billion buyout offer from Google. Even without the daily deals acquisition, Google has been attacking local commerce from all sides. Google Offers launched soon after the Groupon deal went pear-shaped, and the company continues to buy smaller deals sites, such as TheDealMap.

by Chikodi Chima
See full article at Venture Beat

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This post also appears on DailyDealsObserver

Social Networking Use Among Mobile Users Grows In Europe

PC WORLD - Nov 21 - The number people accessing SNS in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. using their mobile phone has grown by 44% in the last year, according to comScore. In Sep, 55M users in the five countries accessed SNS or blogs on their mobile device, representing about one in four of the total mobile audience. Twitter and LinkedIn more than doubled its audiences, but Facebook is still the biggest by a wide margin. Facebook's audience grew from ~25M to ~39M.

by Mikael Ricknäs
See full article at PC World

Syria's Revolutionary iPhone App Helps Fight The Assad Regime

THE DAILY BEAST - Nov 17 - The revolution is online. For the past eight months, the Internet has played a key role in the Syrian uprising. An iPhone and iPad app launched on Tuesday called Souria Wa Bas (which roughly translates as “Syria and That’s All”). The app team gives a shout-out to a handful of opposition groups, including the Local Coordination Committees that claim to have members across the country. The app features links for news, videos, a map of opposition hot spots, and … jokes.

by Babak Dehghanpisheh
See full article at Daily Beast

Proximity Based Mobile Social Networking Report

BUSINESS WIRE - Nov 9 - Research and Markets has added the "Proximity Based Mobile Social Networking: Applications and Technology, Making New Connections in the Physical World" report to their offering. This report details the opportunity, players and strategic relevance of these applications and associated technologies.

See full article at Benzinga

ComScore: Mobile SN App Audience Grows 126%

READ WRITE WEB - Oct 20 - U.S. mobile social media audiences increased 37%, and more than half of social mobile audiences read a post from an organization, brand or event on their mobile device. The social networking app audience has grown five times faster in the past year. While the mobile browsing social networking audience has grown 24% to 42.3M users, the mobile social networking app audience shot up 126% to 42.3M users in the past year. The Facebook mobile audience is fast approaching 60M users.

by Alicia Eler
See full article at Read Write Web

Blendr Social App Raises Fears

BOSTON HERALD - Oct 3 - Blendr, a new location-based app, is raising concerns that it could be used to prey on teens. Blendr, which doesn’t bill itself as a dating app like Grindr, lets users know how close they are to others by relying on a smartphone’s GPS or Facebook’s location software. But child advocates aren’t viewing the new app as just a way to make friends and review places. When asked for its position, the company pointed to a 2010 statement: “As an added protection, we encourage parents to add Apple’s parental controls to their children’s iPod Touches, iPhones and iPads to help ensure that their children cannot access 17-and-over sites and apps. Grindr strongly condemns the inappropriate and criminal use of our service and actively cooperates with local authorities on any alleged illegal activity on our service.”

by Cameron Sperance
See full article at Boston Herald

See all posts on Grindr

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Mobile Social Networking 2011-2016

PR NEWSWIRE - Sep 26 - A new market research report Mobile Social Networking 2011-2016 is available. The report examines the rapidly growing market of social networking on mobile devices. It provides growth forecasts, market sizing and analysis of the latest developments in this sector.

See full article at PR Newswire

Location Sharing iPhone App Onmaway Launches

PR WEB - Sep 16 - Onmaway is a simple way to automatically let other people know a user's location over time. The app allows user's to send a link to friends and family via text, email, and social media that lets them track the user's location on any web browser.

See full article at PR Web

Mobile Users Eager to Offer Their Location

TECH CRUNCH - Aug 17 - According to a new report from location-based media company JiWire, 53% of the “on-the-go” U.S. audience is willing to exchange their location in exchange for more relevant content and better information, including mobile deals. In the group of mobile consumers under the age of 34, the percentage is even greater: 60% are willing to trade their location for information.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

This post also appears on DailyDealsObserver.

MOKO.Mobi Acquires mbuzzy.com

SMART COMPANY - July 28 - Perth-based mobile social network MOKO.Mobi has acquired US mobile site mbuzzy.com for ~$3M in stock, as it attempts to make its mark in the US market. Founded in 2004 by Ian Rodwell, MOKO.Mobi offers mobile phone users a social network where they can chat, upload photos and play games. MOKO has 5.5M users around the world through partnerships with major telcos including Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile.

by Michelle Hammond
See full article at Smart Company

Time Spent on Mobile Apps Has Surpassed Web Browsing

TECH CRUNCH - June 20 - According to mobile app analytics firm Flurry, the average user now spends 9% more time using mobile apps than the Internet. In June users spent an average of 81 minutes daily on mobile apps, compared to 74 minutes on the web. This compares to 66 minutes on mobile apps daily in December of 2010, and 70 minutes spent daily on the web. Games and Social Networking categories dominate, capturing 47% and 32% on consumer time spent daily, respectively.

by Leena Rao
See full article at Tech Crunch

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Apple Researching How the iPhone Can Help You Make New Friends

MACRUMORS - June 16 - Social networking has been the biggest trend in the recent years. Apple has already tried delve into this market with its iTunes network Ping, though with limited success. Based on a new patent app published today, it seems Apple has been exploring far more ambitious attempts using the iPhone, location-based services and interest matching. iPhone could find you your next friend, business partner or date.  Common interests and experiences of two or more users located close to each other can be identified from content, including automatically created usage data of the mobile devices. (e.g., songs downloaded), a trajectory of the mobile device (e.g., places traveled), or other public data available from the mobile device (e.g., pictures shared).

by Arnold Kim
See full article at MacRumors

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.