Wireless Federation

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.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — (MARKET WIRE) — August 28, 2006 — AirG, the global leader in powering mobile communities and wireless social networking, announced today that as of May 1, 2006, its mobile community reached a new milestone by surpassing more than 10 million unique users, making it the fastest growing mobile social network in the world. The rapid growth of AirG’s community is evidence that wireless social networking is becoming a mass market phenomenon and will soon rival the popularity of social networking on the Internet.AirG has been successfully powering social networking on mobile phones since 2000, and has built a mobile community that is interconnected to more than 85 mobile operators globally, including Sprint Nextel, Cingular, Boost Mobile, Orange and Virgin Mobile. Many of AirG’s millions of unique users are in the coveted 18-25 demographic and spend an average of 59 minutes per day in the community. Based on these numbers, it is no surprise that mobile operators, media companies, consumer brands and advertisers alike are taking notice.

“AirG’s social network is the only mobile application in the market today where users are captive in a live and interactive environment on their phones for an average of an hour each day,” commented Frederick Ghahramani, co-founder of AirG. “This provides a tremendous opportunity for mobile operators, brand holders and advertisers to engage customers and communicate with them directly.”

To demonstrate the power of mobile communities to reach consumers directly, AirG recently conducted a survey in its community where over 30,000 users responded in just 90 minutes and provided valuable insights into their spending habits and behaviors. The survey found that the majority of users would rather chat on their phone than watch TV, do not own a PC, spend more than $80 each month on their mobile phone, and spend more than $100 each month on clothes and entertainment. In fact, the response rate to advertising in AirG’s mobile community is on average more than ten times as effective as online.

AirG’s comprehensive suite of mobile community products includes the Community Marketing Engine, Community Patrol, Community Storefront, Community Marketing Toolkit and Micro-Community Interface, and is available for licensing by mobile operators, media companies and consumer brands. By combining instant critical mass, recurring revenues, 24×7 monitoring and support, and the ability to target market directly to users in the community with a patented cutting edge user interface; AirG has the most feature-rich, interactive and fastest growing mobile community solution available in the market today.

About AirG

AirG powers mobile communities and wireless social networking. The company’s products and services have a proven track record of increasing customer affinity for leading mobile operators and media companies globally including Sprint Nextel, Cingular, Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Orange and MTV Asia. AirG’s mobile community has more than ten million registered users worldwide and is available on more than 85 mobile operators. Based in Vancouver, Canada, the company also has offices in the UK, Australia, France, Germany, the Philippines and India.

Source- http://www.marketwire.com

Technorati : AirG, Mobile, Virgin Mobile
Ice Rocket : AirG, Mobile, Virgin Mobile