CES Entertainment
Mobile Next: Social Networks and Application Innovation in
Mobile
Jerry Rocha, Senior Director of Mobile Media & Advertising
Confidential & Proprietary
© 2008 The Nielsen Company

No Question: Social Networking Has Changed How We Connect
We now communicate in very different ways:
• Virtual Worlds (e.g. SecondLife)
• Facebook “actions” such as pokes, nudges, etc
• IM instead of voice chat
• Status updates
• Bookmarking
• Video Sharing
• Micro-blogging (Twitter) /Blogging

The Irony of Social Media
Confidential & Proprietary
© 2008 The Nielsen Company

Mobile Social
Media changes
that…

Wireless Can Set You Free
Blogs, rss, chat, Message
Boards, Podcasts, video sharing,
virtual worlds, Wikis, social bookmarks,
micro-blogs, music
sharing, gaming, social radio,
live video broadcast…all
on your mobile
device.

MoSoSo
(Mobile Social Software)

MoSoSo, an acronym for Mobile Social Software, is a class of mobile applications whose
scope is to support social interaction among interconnected mobile users. The basic idea
of a MoSoSo is to overlay a location and time element to the idea of digital networking. It
enables users to find one another, in a particular vicinity and time, for social or business
networking.
Source: Wikipedia. However, the term
“Social Software” was first coined by Clay
Shirky in 2003.

56% of subscribers belong to a social network of some kind – 27% of
that group have used their device for social networking
Subscribers that Belong to a Social Network/
Subscriber Device Use for Social Networking
Online Community Subscribers who Belong to a Social Network, Nov 2008, National
All Data Users Nov 2008, National
Confidential & Proprietary
© 2008 The Nielsen Company

Privacy and Security Concerns
While new technology carries some risk, the
positives will most likely outweigh the negatives.

Social Networking + LBS
• Adding the element of time and location is not only
more enjoyable for the user but can actually
augment safety:
– Being able to identify friends who are in same location
– Cyber Escort Applications being used by campus police at
universities
• Enables users to enhance their networking
capabilities by connecting with people in real time.
• Future: Advertisers you have “opted-in” to follow
could reach you with special deals when you are
geographically close by.

LBS Applications Continue to Dominate Industry
Industry Mix of Application Revenue by Category
Q2 2008, Q3 2008, National
Source: Mobile Media Measurement – Confidential & Proprietary
Applications Report © 2008 The Nielsen Company

8M people participated in Social Networking
Mobile Internet Users (in millions) by Service Type
Nov 2008, National
Source: Mobile Media Measurement – Confidential & Proprietary
12
Mobile Internet Report © 2008 The Nielsen Company

Social Networking is the pack leader in y-o-y
audience growth
Mobile Internet Audience Growth by Service Type
Nov 2007 - Nov 2008, National
Mobile Social
Networking
audience up
from 3.3M in
Q3-07 to 8M in
Q3-08
Source: Mobile Internet Report Confidential & Proprietary
© 2008 The Nielsen Company

Mobile Social Software Drives Subscribers / Creates Loyalty
MoSoSo extends the user experience to a
mobile device. Duplicating online features
on the mobile device is key to retaining
users both online and via mobile.

Facebook and MySpace.com were the top dogs in social
networking
Social Networking Mobile Internet Audience
Mobile Internet Users Nov 2008, National
Confidential & Proprietary
© 2008 The Nielsen Company

iPhone was the most popular device among social
networkers
Top Devices Among Internet Social Networkers
Data Users Q3 2008, National
Confidential & Proprietary
© 2008 The Nielsen Company

Facebook’s iPhone app helped top MySpace in
September 08
Social Networking Mobile Audience
Mobile
Oct 07 – Oct 08
Social
Networking
audience
up 189%
YoY
iPhone 3G
Launch
Confidential & Proprietary
© 2008 The Nielsen Company

Over 300M SMS sent just from Social Networking sites in Q3/08
Top Standard Rate SMS Titles by Transactions (000)
AT&T and Verizon, Q3 2008 National
Unique Users by SMS Brand
# of Unique Users Transactions per
Title
(000) User
4INFO 2,695 64
ESPN Alerts 472 315
Facebook 2,373 47
Google Mobile 3,656 29
MySpace 924 101
Weather.com 857 94
Twitter.com 600 118
Limbo.com 1,014 51
Cha Cha 1,066 41
My Coke Rewards 1,121 32
Flavor Chase 552 57
Chase Mobile 1,614 15
Jayski 272 77
USA Mobile Alerts 195 102
NBC Sports 452 40
Source: Mobile Media Measurement – Confidential & Proprietary
18
Applications Report © 2008 The Nielsen Company

Social Networking skews heavily female
Demographics of Social Network Internet Users - Gender
Nov 2008 National
Source: Mobile Media Measurement – Confidential & Proprietary
19
Mobile Internet Report © 2008 The Nielsen Company

Social Networking and MySpace in particular skew young,
~70% of user below 34…
Demographics of Social Network Internet Users - Age
Nov 2008 National
Source: Mobile Media Measurement – Confidential & Proprietary
20
Mobile Internet Report © 2008 The Nielsen Company

Mobile Social Media and Social Media Future
• With continued development of more sophisticated
hardware in conjunction with more feature-rich
mobile applications, social media will see both
online and mobile growth continue to surge.
• This will continue to cause a fundamental shift in
the way advertisers reach people.
• Social networking companies should continue to
focus on making the applications more mobile-
friendly or developing stand alone MoSoSo.