Told You So: Social Networking on mobile EXPLODING, worth 3.45 B dollars in 2006

We love digital communities and social networking, obviously, as we set up this blogsite - Communities Dominate Brands - and wrote the book of the same name. And in the six hundred or so blog entries at this blogsite we've discussed just about every significant social networking site and digital community from eBay to Skype, from MySpace to YouTube, from Habbo Hotel to Worlds of Warcraft, from Flickr to Ohmy News, from 2nd Life to Twins Mobile. And on and on and on.

We celebrate digital communities, and cherish all the related phenomena, from smart mobbing to TV interactivity, from blogging to wikis, from podcasting to electronic dating.

Regular readers of our blog also catch our frequent "theme" that all digital community behaviour is migrating towards the mobile phone. That online dating is going mobile, that multiplayer gaming is going mobile, that bloggers are turning to moblogging, etc. Obviously we also point out the related stats and findings of these, from the stats of now over 38% of all South Koreans already actively mobile blogging (whereas 16% of Americans maintain traditional internet based blogsites); to the merger of internet virtual worlds and mobile phones like Habbo Hotel; the merger of interactive TV and mobile phone voting like Pop Idol/American Idol etc; to examining video sharing sites and the innovative SeeMeTV - where each video creator gets paid one penny every time his/her video is viewed; and the recent comparison that the South Korean Cyworld - that has just launched in America - is like MySpace but two years into the future.

Our site is not a "mobile" community site or wireless social networking site. We do follow all related digital communities whether on broadband internet, interactive TV, multiplayer gaming or mobile phones. But both Alan and I regularly also point out that the inevitable future of digital community behaviour - and thus the inevitable future of all social networking services - is the mobile phone. In a way, all the phenomena that we observe, can be "super-sized" when ported to the mobile phone, as Habbo, Cyworld and SeeMeTV so clearly illustrate.

So today the International Herald Tribune (23 Oct 2006) features a story entitled "Dial right up for photo sideshow" in which it examines the rapidly expanding picture sharing and video sharing sites and their user generated content. A very good story. But in it, the IHT also reports on an Informa report, that this year, 2006, the value of mobile phone based digital community services - user-generated pictures and videos on such sites as SeeMeTV, user-generated blogs and profiles and virtuality sites like Cyworld, etc - are worth...

...yes, mobile social networking services this year are worth...

...3.45 Billion dollars this year !  Wow. A bit of context. All of iTunes revenues last year were about 400 million dollars. TV-interactivity (voting for Big Brother, Survivor Island, Pop Idol etc) were worth 900 million dollars. Internet gaming revenues, all multiplayer games etc, were worth 1.9 billion dollars. All internet adult site revenues were worth 2.5 billion dollars in 2005. Two years ago - when we were researching our book, the total value of mobile digital community services was well below 200 million dollars. Today in 2006, the total value of mobile digital community services is 3.45 billion dollars. Wow. That is a true explosion in revenues. Oh, just to be clear - that mobile digital content revenue is more than all (non-mobile phone based) online social networking revenues combined. In only two years, the mobile side of digital communities has shot ahead of the online world. Amazing!

And this is still, when most mobile operators around the world are still "experimenting" with these technologies, launching primitive first-generation mobile blogging services and RSS feeds, SMS alerts to blog comments, picture uploading synchronizations with picture sharing services, etc. And the total phone penetration to fully capitalize on these services is low - ideally you need a 3G phone and subscription - of which there were 75 million last year, but over double that this year.

But yes, we can very happily tell you "we told you so." If you were reading our blog a year ago and just copied some of the ideas we talked about, and launched them in your country, you'd be a millionaire today.

But better than that, we said this already in our book, Communities Dominate Brands. There are of course dozens of wonderful books out already, that discuss blogging, or user-generated content, or viral marketing or social networking. But I have not seen one other book so far to discuss digital communities/social networking and then take the position that mobile will dominate this new phenomenon. We were very clearly the first to do so.

We made our case throughout the book. For example on page 25 we write, "While all other digitally converging technologies are significant, one is above all others. That is the mobile phone." And then on page 60 we write, "The examples we cite in this book of community behaviour are still the very early ones, happening much by trial and error. But the trend is inevitable. A connected community learns its power remarkably fast. The true empowering technology is mobile telecoms, and as such communities get involved with consumer action connected by mobile phone, soon all communities learn of the potential that communities wield."

And again to stress the point, as in the book and on this blogsite, that it is not the only technology for digital communities in the future, we add, "The mobile phone is not, however, the only communication method and communities will use increasingly multiple channels to share." So yes, the digitally connected consumer of today and tomorrow will co-exist in multiplayer online worlds, on broadband internet sites, interacting on TV, in chat rooms, using IM Instant Messaging, and of course also on mobile phones. But the most important platform for any community service will be the mobile phone.

So now we know. The fastest-growing type of digital service, by revenues, is social networking on mobile phones. Every CEO of a Flickr, YouTube, eBay, Skype, MySpace, Worlds of Warcraft, 2nd Life etc will need to immediately launch mobile extensions, variants, access methods, sharing systems and/or alerts to their online social networks, or else their more nimble rivals will shoot past them. The key to the future revenues of digital communities is the mobile phone. Like our case study of Habbo Hotel in the book so clearly illustrates.

3.45 billion dollars. Like Senator Everett Dirksen said, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money." Cool...

UPDATE - There is not a deeper follow-up to this story, written one day later, entitled "Like SMS Before It, Mobile Social Networking on mobile is now a megabillion dollar killer app for 3G."

Comments

[Http://Www.Youtube.Com]

Hi, i believe that i saw you visited my blog so i got here to go back the want?.I'm trying to find things to enhance my site!I guess its ok to use a few of your ideas!!

[how to pass a drug test]

Hi there, its good paragraph concerning media print, we all know media is a fantastic source of facts.

[Aeria Points Generator]

Hey there! Quick question that's completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My web site looks weird when browsing from my iphone 4. I'm trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to resolve this issue. If you have any suggestions, please share. Many thanks!

[grand fantasia gold adder hack]

Have you ever considered about adding a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable and everything. Nevertheless think about if you added some great visuals or video clips to give your posts more, "pop"! Your content is excellent but with images and video clips, this blog could undeniably be one of the best in its field. Fantastic blog!

[Panorama Condo]

Hey! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I genuinely enjoy reading through your articles. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects? Thanks!

[Clermont Residence]

You should be a part of a contest for one of the greatest websites online. I most certainly will highly recommend this site!

[VigRX Plus]

Pretty! This has been an extremely wonderful article. Thanks for supplying these details.

[Ulrich]

It's remarkable in support of me to have a website, which is useful designed for my know-how. thanks admin

[rf chamber]

Thankfulness to my father who stated to me on the topic of this blog, this webpage is actually amazing.

[Aeria Points Generator]

I love what you guys tend to be up too. Such clever work and reporting! Keep up the very good works guys I've incorporated you guys to blogroll.

[Aeria Points Generator]

It's awesome designed for me to have a web site, which is valuable in favor of my know-how. thanks admin