In India,
approximately 10 mn urban Indians used their mobile phones for engaging in
social networking during the quarter ending August, 2009-a reach of 3.3% among
urban Indian mobile phone users.
According to a recent analysis by Openware
Systems, mobile social networking now represents close to half of all mobile web
usage in the US. The Internet Advertising Bureau recently reported a 179% y-o-y
increase in the number of mobile handsets accessing social media sites, compared
to a 10% increase in PC visitors to the same sites.
Who Uses?
According to Kailash Jangir, DGM, network planning, TTML, "Most mobile users
in India still use mobiles for voice and data applications, as social networking
sites often do not give the option of regional language content."
However, he agrees that social networking
on mobiles has increased by 4-5% since the last five years. But mainly it is for
use of personal and not official or corporate purposes.
Agreeing with him, Robert A, general
manager, global managed services operations, Tata Communications, Chennai says,
"The exception to corporate use of social networking sites is the Google search
engine which is undoubtedly the #1 search engine and is included as a default
application in all mobiles, and LinkedIn, wherein we have witnessed a 10-15%
increase in recent years."
Continuing on the same note, he says, "The
main use of social networking sites by our clientèle is firstly for personal
information sharing, and secondly for HR purposes of verifying the background
and profile of aspiring candidates, for which sites like Facebook and Monster,
apart from LinkedIn are also used."
Statistics
Let's match these statements with some statistics. According to reports on
Trak.in Delhi has the maximum number of users of social networking sites via
mobile phones at 9.7%, followed by Mumbai at 6.4%, Chennai at 4%, and Kolkata at
3.3%.
While Orkut rules the telecom market in
social networking sphere, with over 3 mn users, it is followed closely by Yahoo!
dating with 2.1 mn users and Facebook with 1.97 mn users.
As far as search engines are concerned,
Google emerges as the most favored search engine with 5.76 mn users, followed by
Yahoo! with 4.58 mn users and Rediff with 3.49 mn users. Not surprisingly, these
are the sites used on a daily basis.
When it comes to leaders in providing
these services, state and government run companies score well with regard to
reasonable offerings, while MTNL and Vodafone score in the reliable customer
support offering (Aircel followed by Airtel take the). However, when it comes to
offering its subscribers a diverse range of mobile products. "Tata DOCOMO offers
good VAS to customers for monthly as well as per time usage, GTalk and Facebook
are included on the handset in the Internet enabled phones (these are called
service book entry on the handset, using which customers need not additionally
or separately install any such services)," adds Jangir.
So, why the sudden shift from tried and
tested voice and data applications to relatively new social networking sites?
According to Robert, "The increase in
accessing of social networking sites via mobile in the last few years can be
attributed to the improvement in technology, especially with relation to GPRS,
broadband on mobile and soon to come 3G. Thus, we have witnessed a drastic shift
in the last two to three years from voice and data usage to usage of social
networking sites, which has registered a 50-70% increase."
Adds Nikhil Soman, chief technology
officer, BigAdda, "Social Networking is not restricted to the confines of the PC
browser. In India, mobile phones are the preferred and mostly the sole means of
connecting with friends and family. This year we are all set to redefine the
boundaries of social networking in India. This will be a major departure for
users of social networks, from being an occasional visitor to now proactively
driving their networks."
There could be yet another reason for this
increase. Typically, the data plans currently on offer charge 10 paise for 10KB.
Thus, a data message of 100 bytes-an Orkut scrap or an email or chat
message-would cost 0.1 paisa, as opposed to an SMS of hundred characters that
would cost Re 1. With 3G round the corner, the big bet is not just on search but
also on videos, photos, and other data intensive applications on mobile phone.
India has the potential to become a
leading market in line with developed countries such as Japan or the US or the
UK in terms of Internet usage on phones. In Japan, almost everybody who has a
phone has a data plan. Social networking, especially, is used heavily on the
mobile, rather than on the desktop.
According to Google statistics, since
2007, its traffic on the mobile phone has improved five times. This year, half
of all new Internet connections around the world has been on mobile.
"The boundary between mobile telecoms and
the Internet has all but disappeared," says Frederic Astier, head of customer
operations marketing, Nokia Siemens Networks. "Telecom operators increasingly
see their value, and competitive differentiation, in increasing customer
satisfaction through improving network quality, while acting as a content broker
for social networks, mobile application stores, TV and voice over IP services,"
he continues.
BigAdda claims to have 1.5 mn users and is
adding 15,000 users daily. According to a reliable company source, the site has
registered 45,000 mobile users since its launch last August. Commenting on this
initiative, Shivanandan Pare, chief operating officer, Bigadda says, "With a
registered user base of 2 mn in a year we needed to sensitize the platform to
local aspirations and needs of the market. The number of mobile users today far
exceeds the penetration and usage of PCs in India. Mobiles are lot more
personal, readily accessible and almost an extension of the user. The imperative
was to create a mobile application to give the control of social networking,
anytime and anywhere, literally. Currently bigadda.com is reaching out to the 40
mn Internet user base in India, and with us going on to the mobile platform we
will be able to reach to additional 50 mn mobile Internet users and this will
enhance our reach to the masses."
Risks
According to a recent article in Techcrunch, Twitter had 50 mn users this
September, and is planning to add a billion users by 2013. India with its
growing population and one of the fastest growing mobile phone markets is a
perfect place for Twitter to realize its visionary growth.
While some time ago, tweeting through your
mobile phone was a 'value added service' which would cost the user Rs 3 for each
tweet sent, after a recent agreement with Airtel, this service will be soon
provided at regular SMS cost. However, it remains to be seen whether this step
will help Twitter gain as much popularity as it has in markets abroad.
However, with increased benefits, always
come increased risks, and thus cases of cyber crime on mobile operated social
networking sites is ever on the increase. The question thus arises as to what
operators are doing to prevent such practices and ensure their customers' best
interest.
"One of the steps undertaken by our
company to counter security threats, are encryption and authentication security
options offered for WAP services, which had no security option earlier," says
Robert. However, he is convinced that security threats will not deter increased
usage of social networking sites via mobile and thus signs off by saying, "I
believe there is vast scope for growth of mobile accessible social networking
sites in India, as this presents power in one's palms-enabling one to be in
touch with the mobile and Internet world simultaneously. With the onset of 3G, I
would predict a 100-200% increase of such usage within the next couple of
years."
Beryl M
berylm@cybermedia.co.in
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