Who the hell uses mobile for social networks anyway?

You might have noticed the blog has been quiet for about 2 weeks now, and although i would like to cite "lack of inspiration", twitter and procrastination probably answers it better. However, i just read an article ran on MobiAd on BuzzCity's founder KF Lai on his experience with MyGamma, a rapidly growing mobile social network.

MyGamma serves ads in over 100 countries and is rapidly showing a proven revenue model on the much lauded promise of social networks and location based targeting. In My Lai's words " mygamma is targeting “un-wired” consumers. In other words, people who do not have regular access to a PC and so their only means to connect to internet is through mobile." .. Wow.

Wow because for the first time, someone is making a point that demand based services on mobile isn't the only differentiating factor. THE ENTIRE MARKETPLACE is. We have been assuming the mobile target is an evolution of the 2.0 user experience. E.g we develop facebook mobile to cater to the facebook audience on the go , similarly for myspace etc etc.

But what Buzz City has done is to create a mobile social networking experience for the person that has no access to any wired device. And this is the essence of why his mobile community thrives. The difference is that once again, scarcity leads to demand. Not as a software but as a channel.

This is advantageous in so many ways. From barrier of entry fences to innovation adoption, having a purely mobile community is genius in my book.

How can we apply this? In developed countries where web and mobile is more interlinked, is it possible to find an audience that depends solely on mobile from an infrastructure standpoint? Maybe not, but let me try to challenge the demand marketplace again.

How about Taxi Drivers? Housing brokers? Insurance agents? Basically anyone who is mobile 3/4 of the working day. Will a mobile networking site that is productivity centric make more sense? A Taxi driver may not go home after a long day to update his facebook, but he may be enticed to update a cab mobile social network on traffic conditions, get updates on road blocks etc. Could this same driver be susceptible to location based ads?

It's certainly not proven , but what i hope you takeaway is that our assumptions on WHO mobile consumers and adopters are may need to change. How platforms monetize mobile may rely not only on services innovation but on channel innovation.


Song of the blog : "Run' by Amy Macdonald