LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The recent emergence of location-based mobile social networking services
offered by providers such as GyPSii, Pelago and Loopt is revolutionizing
social networking by allowing users to share real-life experiences via
geo-tagged user-generated multimedia content, exchange recommendations
about places, identify nearby friends and set up ad hoc face to face
meetings.
“Location-based mobile social networking
revenues will reach $3.3 billion by 2013, but successful business models
may differ from what many observers expect,”
says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte. “While
location-based advertising integrated with sophisticated algorithms
holds a lot of promise, the current reality rather points to licensing
and revenue-sharing models as the way forward for social networking
start-ups to grow their customer base and reach profitability. Recent
evidence: the agreements between GyPSii and both Garmin and Samsung.
Similarly, Loopt has established partnerships with all major US cellular
carriers.”
New positioning technologies such as Skyhook Wireless’s
hybrid solution combining GPS, Wi-Fi- and Cell-ID for improved indoor
coverage have been licensed to several social networking vendors. Many
social sites are powered by open location-based platforms such as uLocate’s
Where. However, several factors are hindering mass market adoption of
location-based mobile social networking. Privacy concerns are still a
major issue. Many small players are struggling to create sufficient
brand awareness in a fragmented market. And the traditional concerns
about the cost of data plans also cast their shadow over social
networking.
Location-based mobile social networking constitutes a framework within
which previously independently-launched location-based services such as
search, friend-finder, people tracking and user-generated content find
new momentum by complementing and reinforcing each other. Hence, it
comes as no surprise that Nokia is moving in quickly with the
acquisition of Plazes and the beta launch of the location-enabled Nokia
Chat social instant messaging application.
ABI Research’s new study “Location-based
Mobile Social Networking” (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/market_research/Location-based_
Mobile_Social_Networking)
offers insight into trends, social networking features, drivers,
barriers and includes detailed descriptions of solutions and market
players, with special focus on business models. It also provides
recommendations to all major players and shipment and revenue forecasts
per region and per location-based social networking type. It forms part
of the Location
Aware Services (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/service/Location_Aware_Services),
Consumer
Mobility (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/service/Consumer_Mobility_
Research_Service) and Mobile
Content (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/service/Mobile_Content_Research_
Service) Research Services.
ABI Research is a leading market research firm focused on the impact of
emerging technologies on global consumer and business markets. Utilizing
a unique blend of market intelligence, primary research, and expert
assessment from its worldwide team of industry analysts, ABI Research
assists hundreds of clients each year with their strategic growth
initiatives. For information, visit www.abiresearch.com,
or call +1.516.624.2500.
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