Japanese mobile social networking hits the UK
by Julie ~ July 30th, 2007. Filed under: News.A mobile social networking service from Japan has been launched in the UK.
Mobikade, popular among Japan’s urban youth, enables friends to provide each other with a constant stream of where-I-am and what-I’m-doing pseudo-news via a website accessible from their mobiles.
Every action earns participants points, which can be used to send text messages to friends, or they can be saved and entered in a monthly prize draw. Users can also download games, mostly puzzles like Sudoku.
The service faces a number of hurdles before it is successful in the UK, however. “A direct consumer play could be a problem,” Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum’s consumer practice, told vnunet.com.
“The brand is unknown in the UK, so they might do better allying with a known mobile or online brand.”
A safer bet for success would be mobile features added to an existing popular social networking service, added Zoller.
Furthermore, in Japan, where conventional PC adoption is lower, accessing the web from a mobile is more established than it is in the UK.
UK mobile operators have struggled for years to increase the data proportion of their revenues, which are still only a tiny percentage compared to voice traffic.
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:11 am
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding e mobile social networking hits the UK | phones2buy.co.uk, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong
September 26th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
I have to disagree Daniel. For a start, it’s not just social networking. If you have at http://www.mobikade.com you’ll see that they offer far more than this. I have a hunch that this is going to be big, but perhaps not until 2009 or even 2010 by whcih time the majority of phones will be capable of supporting this kind of technology.