Social Networking Watch

MySpace Goes Mobile in Europe

RED HERRING -- Feb 7 -- Social networking phenomenon MySpace has followed its MySpace Mobile announcements in the United States with news Wednesday that it plans to team up with Vodafone to launch MySpace Mobile in Europe.  Vodafone said it will preload the service on selected phones and make it available for download from its Vodafone Live portal. The service will first be offered in the U.K., and be extended to all the major European mobile and Internet markets. The MySpace tie-in with Vodafone follows a similar deal with AT&T's Cingular Wireless service announced last December (see Cingular Teams up with MySpace).  In Feb '06 MySpace launched on Helio (see Helio, MySpace Link Youth). Cingular customers pay a monthly subscription charge of just under $3 to use the service. For Helio customers it is free. Neither Bebo, Piczo, or Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces have signed deals with European mobile operators. Vodafone rival 3 launched its Kink Kommunity social network in June '06 allowing users to chat and share photos and videos. By Oct '06 they had 50,000. Orange is developing its own social networking strategy. FULL ARTICLE @ RED HERRING

Social Neworking via Cell Phones

THE JOURNAL NEWS -- Jan 24 -- Gina's friends don't expect much eye contact from her when they get together. She stares at her cell phone, tapping feverishly, communicating with people she's never once met in person. She uses Hookt on Boost Mobile. Hookt has its origins in AirG of Canada and has grown into an international community of 10 million users. MySpace launched mobile portal Helio. Cingular offers MySpace Mobile for $2.99 per month plus data charges. Facebook partnered with Virgin Mobile USA and Amp'd Mobile. Both Sprint and Virgin Mobile have signed deals to launch a new application from Intercasting Corp. Helio says 75% of their customers have used the MySpace service, which is included in Helio's pricey monthly plans. FULL ARTICLE @ LOHUD

Mark Brooks: Helio is pricey but the phone and the service options are fully loaded. GPS, picture messaging, and Buddy Beacon, which allows users to track the locations of their friends in real time. See the service plans. I use a T-Mobile blackberry 7130, and a slider phone from MetroPCS ($45/mo for unlimited minutes and long distance). 

iPhone Bundles Maps, Apps

BIZ REPORT -- Jan 11 -- The Apple iPhone has been released and with bundles of Google maps and Yahoo applications many say it will change the face of mobile marketing. But can one little phone really change the world? The wi-fi device was unveiled Tuesday at MacWorld and lets users make calls via Cingular wireless service. It also plays downloaded music and videos and has Google maps and Yahoo email inside. FULL ARTICLE @ BIZ REPORT

Mark Brooks: More than that, will this be the phone that sweetens the usability experience enough for mobile dating to be viable? I think this phone, above all others, will help Americans feel more warm and fuzzy about using the net on a phone. This will fair very well for mobile dating.

Oz to Bring Social Networking to Mobile Phones

REUTERS -- Dec 6 -- Oz Communications, a maker of wireless messaging technologies, will announce on Wednesday a new product allowing people to access social network sites over their cellphones. The company already provides technology that lets people access e-mail and instant messaging services from MSN, AOL and Yahoo over their mobile phones, with Cingular, Sprint and T-Mobile. Oz recently closed a $34 million round of financing. The company is based in Montreal and employs about 230 people. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

REUTERS -- Dec 6 -- Oz Communications, a maker of wireless messaging technologies, will announce on Wednesday a new product allowing people to access social network sites over their cellphones. The company already provides technology that lets people access e-mail and instant messaging services from MSN, AOL and Yahoo over their mobile phones, with Cingular, Sprint and T-Mobile. Oz recently closed a $34 million round of financing. The company is based in Montreal and employs about 230 people. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Social Networking Goes Mobile

RED ORBIT -- May 31 -- MySpace struck a partnership with Cingular. In May, wireless startup Helio began offering phones preloaded with MySpace features. Under the Cingular deal, subscribers get short text messages when new comments or friend requests get posted to their MySpace profile. Helio phones include applications that make it easy for customers to view friends' profiles and post comments and photos onto MySpace [see BW Online, 05/03/06, "Helio's Hot New Line"].  If MySpace (81 million users) has its way, the network's mobile applications will come preloaded onto all mobile phones sold. 33.2% of 18- to 24-year-old Americans post photos to Web sites via mobile phones, according to mobile consultancy M:Metrics. By contrast, only 18.7% of these young adults play downloadable mobile games, one of the most successful forms of mobile content to date -- and a $600 million market in the U.S. last year, according to consultancy IDC. SMS is a $3 billion market in the U.S. "What's going to be much more successful are extensions of existing communities." Dodgeball, for one, is talking to fellow Google property, Orkut, which is hugely popular in Brazil. FULL ARTICLE @ RED ORBIT

Mark Brooks: Juicecaster (mobile blogging) is also mentioned in this article. One to watch.

Facebook Adds Mobile Internet

RED HERRING -- May 12 -- Facebook already offers a text-message service and has just finished building a WAP browsing service that more closely resembles the way the site works online. Facebook's carrier partners Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and Cingular have been very careful about extending social network sites like Facebook onto their cellular networks because of privacy and security concerns. FULL ARTICLE @ RED HERRING

AirG To Power CoolTalk Mobile Community for Cingular

T-NET -- Mar 10 -- AirG, a leader in powering mobile communities, has signed an agreement with Cingular, (54 million subscribers), to offer the CoolTalk (7 million members worldwide) mobile community.  CoolTalk users can connect and make new friends, instant message and view picture profiles.  FULL ARTICLE @ BC TECHNOLOGY