Wireless Federation Research on ”Mobile Social Communities” revealed that there are currently nearly 45 million members using it worldwide, a number that is expected to reach 175 million in 2012.

“With a huge rise witnessed in Online Social communities like MySpace, Facebook among others, there is now a paradigm shift in how people connect with each other using the electronic medium.” says Mohit Sehgal of the Wireless Federation. Increasingly there will be a move to the mobile given the increasing availability of bandwidth from the mobile operators and readiness of handsets available.

“Such mobile social communities will extend the reach of electronic social interaction to millions who don’t have regular or easy access to computers. The most significant increase may be seen in countries like India which have a far higher mobile penetration as compared to PCs”

The rapid pace of mobile social community growth means opportunities for new entrants hoping to join the established players such as SMS.ac, AirG, and Jumbuck that provide the technology and marketing behind leading mobile communities.

Opportunities to monetize mobile social communities fall into several main categories:

- Mobile operators profit from data usage that underpins all mobile community activities they carry, and in some cases from monthly subscription fees as well.

- Companies can sponsor special interest communities that relate directly to their brands or services.

- The self-profiling nature of these communities means that advertising can be targeted to specific niches with great accuracy. Many mobile communities also offer downloadable merchandise for sale — ringtones or images, for example.

“What would help drive these mobile social communities is for more mobile operators to sponsor them”.

Vodafone announcing the launch of myspace on their network is a positive sign and will shape the future for such similar relationships.