Social Networks on Mobile

Mark Zuckerberg, founder CEO of Facebook has gone on accord saying that 2009 will be "serious business". This was in reference to the oft asked question: How will the social networking sites monetize their traffic? ( I plan to cover that topic squarely in one of the Facebook posts). Therefore it was only time before entry into the mobile platforms were considered as the next big thing given that mobile advertisement market was worth $2.8 billion in 2008.

The latest in the context of entry to mobile ads market space is the entry of Facebook following Google and Bebo (read report here http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k9/feb/feb69.php). The entry of these heavyweights into the mobile advertisement space significantly alters the battle scene, which was so longer dominated by smaller and local companies. It makes sense for Facebook to enter the mobile adspace because surveys have proven that a significant portion of Facebook users access the website through their mobiles. This is validated by Jon S. von Tetzchner CEO, Opera Software in his web report http://www.opera.com/smw/2008/12/.

Thus Facebook is seriously considering a tie up with Nokia to include Facebook features in its devices. Nokia on the other hand is also considering options in its own mobile social networking service. Facebook's alliance with Nokia at this point oif time would include allowing users to merge their phone contacts with their Facebook friends and combining Facebook profile pictures with users’ address books and a whole host of features including photo and video upload options are also being considered. If this partnership works out, Facebook will have widgets on Nokia mobiles linking users to Facebook. This is the third mobile major after RIM and Apple, where Facebook features in Mobile aps. Facebook is also in talks with Motorola and Palm to integrate Facebook into its suit of services.