MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING

Mobile social networking

is social networking where one or more individuals of similar interests or commonalities, conversing and connecting with one another using the mobile phone. Much like web based social networking, mobile social networking occurs in virtual communities. A current trend for Internet social networking websites such as MySpace[1] and Facebook[2] is to turn mobile. There are two basic types of mobile social networks. The first is companies that partner with wireless phone carriers to distribute their communities via the default start pages on mobile phone browsers, an example is JuiceCaster. The second type is companies that do not have such carrier relationships (also known as "off deck") and rely on other methods to attract users, for example MocoSpace and Mobikade. Advances in software technology have facilitated the existence of these mobile virtual communities. Industry wireless network technologies include SMS, WAP, Java, BREW and i-mode.

Japan, Korea and China have much higher usage of mobile social networks than Western countries, generally thanks to better mobile networks and data pricing (flat rate notably is widespread in Japan). Most of them are extensions of PC-based services, but others are pure mobile-focused offerings. Leaders in the space are Mixi (Japan, web+mobile), Mobile Game Town (Japan, mobile), Cyworld (South Korea, web+mobile), Tencent/QQ (China, web+mobile), TX.com.cn (China, mobile). In Japan where 3G networks achieved over 80% user penetration, numerous other mobile SNS have popped up.

With the current software that is available, interactions within mobile social networks are not limited to exchanging simple text messages on a 1-to-1 basis (SMS) but are constantly evolving towards the sophisticated interactions of Internet virtual communities.