Social Media Bits: Nokia; SFR; O2; Community Connect
By Ingrid Lunden - Fri 10 Aug 2007 02:03 PM PST
Several launches to note in the mobile social networking world:
-- Two weeks after its acquisition of Twango, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) today launched a new mobile social networking site called Mosh (short for Mobilize and Share). The move represents Nokia’s biggest move to-date to extend its content offerings beyond Nokia phone users: Mosh will be accessible over any WAP- or Internet-enabled device, including other handsets and PCs. But with many of the more established social networking sites like MySpace and Bebo pushing into mobile, it will be worth watching whether Nokia will achieve critical mass with Mosh. Users will be able to upload and share the usual gamut of digital content—videos, pictures, music and games—sans charge. The site is still in closed beta but requests for passwords are being accepted.
-- SFR (Paris:VIV.PA) is starting a mobile user-generated video service in France this month, Yatta Video. Developed by Hands-On Mobile (the mobile publisher currently seeking a new CEO), Yatta encourages people to upload videos by promising payments for each download—similar to services like SeeMeTV and Peekaboo (via Telecom Paper). A spokesperson for Hands-On tells us it costs between 50 euro cents ($0.68) and 1 euro ($1.37) to download a clip (adult content costs more). Uploading costs 50 euro cents ($0.68), and ‘directors’ get a 10 percent share of the revenue after their content generates 15 euros in download sales.
-- O2 (NYSE: TEF) is hosting a mobile version of the German social-networking site Kwick! The operator is offering two tiers of service: a free service that allows users to communicate with three of their friends and see all other “Kwickies” that are online; and another, charged at 2 euros ($2.74) per month, that lets users communicate with all the Kwickies, access your blog, and get SMS alerts when you get messages or have friends online. Kwick! has about 920,000 members.
-- Community Connect is putting its group of niche social networking sites—BlackPlanet.com, GLEE.com, MiGente.com and AsianAvenue.com—onto the mobile Internet. Intercasting Corp. is providing the platform, and the content will be available to Intercasting’s mobile operator partners. These include Sprint in the U.S. and 3 in the UK. Release
Posted in: Companies, Operators, O2, Countries, Europe, Social Media
