Skip to main content

Mobile Location-Based Social Networking

According to ABI Research, mobile location-based social networking is expected to become a driver for the adoption of location-based services -- as it provides a unifying framework for a large set of applications such as friend finders, local search and geo-tagging.

While many LBS applications will include features allowing the sharing of real-time experiences via fixed social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, fully-fledged mobile location-based social networking sites will also gain momentum with more than 82 million subscriptions expected by 2013.

"While growth will be mainly driven by the availability of multimedia-centric GPS handsets, other mobile form factors will also become important," says ABI Research director Dominique Bonte.

Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) with built-in GPS receivers have been announced, with location-based social networking site GyPSii supporting Moblin-based Intel Atom processor-powered MIDs.

Connected PNDs and outdoor GPS solutions are other obvious candidates for location-based networking. Nissan Carwing in-car telematics solution allows the sharing and ranking of fuel consumption in Japan.

Licensing agreements with carriers and handsets manufacturers will be a crucial success factor for location-enabled social sites to reach critical market share.

While initially a wide range of business models will coexist, ultimately advertising-based models will prevail due to the perfect fit with the local search- and content-driven social context.

Another important trend is the emergence of location-enabled instant messaging with applications such as Palringo Local and Nokia Chat enriching mobile communication with location context.

Popular posts from this blog

How AI is Reshaping Business Communication

The typical customer engagement model is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by the convergence of Conversational AI, Generative AI  (GenAI), and an emerging technology called Agentic AI. As business leaders seek to automate and enhance their customer interactions, these technologies are creating new possibilities for more natural, contextual, and efficient communication at scale. The numbers tell a compelling story. According to Juniper Research's latest analysis, the conversational AI market is poised for substantial growth. Revenue is projected to surge from $14.6 billion in 2025 to over $23 billion by 2027. Artificial Intelligence Market Development The vendors in this industry are expected to generate a remarkable $57 billion globally over the next three years. This growth reflects the increasing enterprise adoption of AI-powered communication solutions across various sectors. What's particularly interesting is the regional distribution of this market. The Far Ea...