Organised by W2F , there were a panel presentations and roundtable discussions. Some kind of speed dating event with efficient networking activity. Here are some comments, classified by type of participants mobile, internet, media, advertising rather than by chronology. My take-aways :
1. Online web 2.0 services are still on the way-up but migration of users have started to appear, there could be ups and down as the social habits and demographics evolve.
2. Mobile network operators are opening the walled garden to the big brands but also partnering with ASPs, this could stimulate a value-added service creation utilizing more fully the mobile assets (location, address books, IMS enablers)
3. Advertisers and media are still cautious about mobile social networks, see it as a modest multi-channel addition to boost brands, not revenue.
4. Technology enablers are coming : widgets for user interfaces, customer analytics, and possibly as mentioned selective network enablers
Online services
Sarah Gavin, Global communications director,Bebo
Bebo is now the 3rd social site, with 5.8 million, Beboers and may catch MySpace by year end. Bebo's success is based on very strong engagement of users, they spend 160 minutes / month [compared with 140 minutes for Facebook and 100 minutes on MySpace ]. [ Note : Beboers create profiles, list favorites, pictures, and activities; it provides band profiles and music sharing. Beboers customize profile skins, make it public or private; to protect personality Bebo does not allow criteria search. Skype provides IM. BeboTV has 12 categories : music, sports, comedy, entertainment, animals and news. Bebo also has music from all genres. ]
David Springall, CTO and co-founder Yospace
Yospace is the ASP behind 'See Me TV' user-generated video gallery offered on 3 UK and and O2's LookAtMe!. It provides MMS hosting and services. Statistics for See me TV : 13 million clips / year, reward and pricing is key. start at 10-50p. Clips are 10-30s videos (MMS). Paypal used to participate and reward. It leverages the fact that mobile users are willing to pay. Community is secondary to content gallery because of mobile UI limitations.
Roy Vella, head of mobile payment, PayPal
PayPal mobile payments works exactly the same as on the internet, replacing an e-mail address by an MSISDN and password. But Roy stresses that SNS drivers have not been all about money. MySpace started as a promotion for small bands, Facebook was launched when Harvard refused to post face books on internet. Advertising money came as a result because eyeballs. Few SNS are money-centric : eBay is a community where people meet in and transact leaving feedback about people and goods.
Brands should be cautious about engaging with SNS. It ‘s a new space to thread carefully. Imagine if you throw a party and a non-invited corporation shows up ! The word of mouth can be negative if you are not contributing something tangible to the community. Half of the value is consumers’ generating content about your brand.
Tim Hussein, Head of mobile, AOL UK
SNS are nothing new for advertisers and brands : message forums existed in the 80's, Coke sponsored football clubs because it's about communities. It’s no different on-line and it's common sense principle. And adds are posted where people are more likely to buy. People expect to see adds when they pick up a magazine but not in SNS which they think is private . About 16 hours usage ? he doubts it.
Mobile operators and application service providers
Amer Hasan, Manager mobile internet partnerships, Vodafone global
Mobile brings users a remote control of their profile in social networks. And MNOs can offer additional enablers to the ecosystems : id [authenticated] , location, handset support. MNOs can also provide value with customer care (user can call when have queries). And a range of billing options from free offering to premium service : for example MySpace for 50p. to 1.5 £./day, flat rates of 7.5 £/month,
But mobile SNS need critical mass and uniform availability across all channels. Therefore they are not sustainable as MNO proprietary offerings. Vodafone’s direction is towards preferred non exclusive partners : MySpace [MySpace mobile is wap based update blogs and friends, only known friends.- email address], eBay. Google maps. Short term exclusive agreements to provide time to promote.
Mark Watts-Jones, Head of development and innovation, Orange UK
Orange interest is no more in the creation of mobile SNS products. Orange tried proprietary solutions before but realize that partnering will result in better products. Orange works with Bebo, IMS. .However it is not easy to copy internet on phones. We have to develop useful service that mobile users will use it and advertisers will come. Dead easy to say, hard to do! . About mobile UGC, you have to realize that what users are doing is SMS and messages, not only blogging and sharing : my mum do not understand blogging.
Liz McCord, Principal engineer, France Telecom R&D, UK
She commented the role for IMS to provide some services to online networks, such as identity moves. I hardly heard anyone else mention IMS during the day.
Anuj Khanna, head of marketing, Tania mobile
They provide ITV platforms for UGC and participation. The mobile data market is 100B$ but 80% of this is SMS . Flat rate data offers will trigger VAS on data. So far mobile users have shown a surprising tolerance to pay bad content but this will not last. Need better content. 70% may be offered free on internet and 30% charged on mobile because “this market exists”
Laurence Seberini, Managing Director, Lucky mobile
Mobile banners adds are very effective in RSA. Click thru is 1:5 (because phones display only 1 add at a time), compared to 1:50 on internet and 1:100 on TV. But the CPM of mobile is al lot higher (5x online and TV) Also market surveys can be done in 24 hours using WAP forms. And we have seen instant purchasing behavior very strong : mobile users buy crap content easily.
Advertising and media
Graham Darracott, Partner, Graphico New Media
His opinion about mobile SNS business : Mobile is an extension of the net, and it works as an additional channel, part of digital campaign...MNOs “can't get their pound of flesh”. Consumers will always find their way around paying e.g, use Facebook for group SMS [ Some related comments here Facebook Will Win in SMS Social Networking] . MNOs have to offer , all you can eat data bundle including roaming to allow new services. One mobile issue is privacy : : SNS.are like big night clubs, “you don't give your mobile number to everyone”.
Brand must bring real [genuine, authentic] value in social networks. Brands that give something back to the community benefit. For example ordering a real Domino's pizza from inside World of Warcraft is, fantastic : you don't have to go out of the WOW environment, you only have to answer the doorbell ! [ Story is here ]. Nike in Second Life it's about how you look [avatars can acquire and wear customized virtual footware; Nike gets actual revenue for the digital shoes, gathers market research such as colors and designs and branding. Further analysis here ]. BBC brand instantly creates affinity with customers and is incredibly strong. He recommends market-research research : on-line or on the streets : spend time with people.
Neil Hughston, Managing Director, Saatchi&Saatchi Interactive
The development of mobile social networks will be modest. Even in Korea’s Cyworld usage of mobile is selective. Many people have up to 15 contacts in their phone address book. And many do not use applications on their handsets. Users will not pay MNOs for services, the march is towards offering pay as you go and contract tariffs choices. MNO are involved with mobile with SNS to get critical mass of customers. .
About SNS advertising, we should not mix influencers and connectors. There are different ways to measure influence and connectivity. Who is being listened to should be measured, not number of friends? Names collectors are of no value, boys collecting girl's names; unless you are a star, you are not a connector. SNS advertising is moving away from big hit big campaign and playing on passions : music, charities, events. It’s very difficult to apply to all brands. Think of Campbell Soup or Procter Gamble washing powder who have the budgets but cannot have that level of responses.
Melissa Goodwin, head of mobile, ITV
ITV are not doing SNS for the money but in order to get user feedback on programs. It is a direct audience to TV interaction, that can be read exactly, they are unofficial testers, tell exactly if it's rubbish, and ITV can put our own responses. This is the most valuable reason ITV does it for now for 18 month. There is a simple way with audiences: delight them, engage them.
Rachel Beresford, Head of mobile marketing, emap
Transparency of pricing is key. Integrated billing plays in favor of mobile especially for impulse buy - internet / Paypal is not as integrated. Questioned about an example of failure : Friendsters, which Google paid 13B$ but got less than 1% of the SNS market. They forgot about customers and had service quality issues : 1min to download profiles.
Technology
Gero Steinroeder, head of partnerships, Nokia Widset
Widset (Nokia’s widgets) is about opening walled garden, with over 80 mobile devices supported . It is all about choice as opposed to operator control, following the successful internet model where user do unexpected thing. There is a community to recommend and share Widsets, it enables users, open up services, let them fine the direction. He expects that users will primarily use internet’s add-funded model and free usage. With mobile SNS, non intrusive engagement advertising should be build as a basic part of the service. There will still be room for premium rate.
Jouko Ahvenainen, Founder and COO, Xtract Ltd
Xtract Social Links is a part of of Blyk's advertising solution. Jouko explained how companies can utilize and analyze word of mouth marketing in a systematic way, recommendations are really important and are behind 71% of purchase decisions. With SNS analytics, you can analyze, understand, value the very important, players [alfa users] . Similarly, advertisers need facts and user profiles details. There is a need to optimize value chain and user experiences in mobile and internet channels . Traditional web analytics are describing only average users, Google provides only ad-hoc links based on current search context. Mobile SNS get to learn user preferences over time, not only what people tell you but detailed behavior patterns.
How limitations on privacy private communities public / are there some obvious lines to draw, location
Market research
Nadja Litschko, research consultant. W2F London
She presented 3 segments from the Mobile Youth report ( showed qualitative recorded interviews without quantitative analysis) :
• casual users 55% of total; have 100 friends (real friends)
• dedicated users 35% of total; 15-35 old;have100-300 friends, most of them real; 6-15 hours usage , personalized pages, often musicians and artists
• hard core users 10% of total; less than 18 years; have over 300 friends (not real); 16 hours, highly personalized pages
Highlighted the trendes migration of social networks away from youth market, as user grow-up and also as the older users get on board. For example,. 75% of users YouTube are now over 25, 87% over 18yrs (compared with only 41% in 2005).
