What Will Be The Killer Mobile Social Networking Application

What will be the

killer mobile social networking application?

Jordy Mont-Reynaud Lead Mobile Developer, Bebo Mobile Social Networking – Sept 25, 2007

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued Overview

Technology breakthrough #1: Social Networking

“ don’t believe the hype- it’s a lot bigger than that”

the experience vs. technology

Technology break-through #2: Mobile

Some thoughts on the mobile social “killer app”…

User experience

Technologies

Revenue model

… and how we can reach it

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued “ Social networking” - the experience friends Close friends family High school friends High school friends I never want to see again coworkers Favorite DJs College friends Professional contacts

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued

Fixed line phones

“ Online social networking” – the technology then SMS now IM Email Mobile phones Snail mail Smoke signals Speech Online Social Networks A brief history of social networking technologies (* not drawn to scale)

Is it…

a fad?

just for “those crazy kids”?

A new way to make tons of money?

Online social networking IS:

a technology (or a set of technologies)

that fundamentally improves the way we communicate

with people we already know

and people we don’t know (yet)

Don’t believe the hype – it’s a lot bigger than that “ be yourself” “ be someone” ??

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued How does Bebo fit in? Stats source: Comscore August 2007

1.5 years old

3 rd biggest social network globally

Beboers more engaged than any other SN

#1 website in UK + Ireland (pageviews)

Highest PVE* ratio of any SN (*page view to engineer)

“ be yourself” “ be someone”

Fixed internet

13 years old

Reaches 1.1B users

Tons of traffic on free sites

Content industry worth $25B

Greatest revenues from adult entertainment + gambling

Mobile internet

8 years old

Reaches 2.7B users

Tons of traffic on free+paid

Mobile content worth $31B

Largest categories: music and social networking

Mobile opportunity is huge and growing fast Source: Tomi Ahonen, Communuties Dominate Brands. http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/06/mobile_welcome_.html

Mobile internet: younger, larger, and growing faster

SMS worth $100B in 2007 (> movie industry + music + videogames)

Media (in 2005, guess which ringtone outsold all of iTunes?)

Put two game-changing technologies together…

Mobile + Social Networking = HUGE

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued The mobile social killer app

The ultimate goal (qualitative definition):

If your app crashes, your users get same feeling as when they forget their phone at home

4 elements of the killer app

Reach: ubiquitous

User experience: “push” and “pull” in harmony

Technology: don’t sweat it, just pick the right one

Cost/revenue model: scalable

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued 1. Ubiquitous Sources: Telephia http://telephia.com/html/Comscorejanuary2007UK.html and M:Metrics: http://mmetrics.com/press/PressRelease.aspx?article=20061214-social-networking

Reaches as many of 3B mobile users as possible

Warning: actual usage of technologies differs from technical penetration

Handset support (SMS, WAP, download) 90% Usage (SMS) 60% Usage (WAP) 20% Usage (download) 5%

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued 2. Integrating push and pull for max interactivity

Push messages (alerts) are key

Asynchronous important as well

Don’t leave the user hanging with one-way push

User’s attention span 0s 1m 5m 1h SMS WAP/XHTML Downloadable client

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued 3a. Don’t sweat the technology – just pick the right one! User experience Communication Self-expression Internet Explorer SMS WAP/ XHTML J2ME/ BREW Email Firefox SMS J2ME/ BREW WAP/ XHTML

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued 3b. Don’t sweat the technology – just pick the right ones!

Need to be able to iterate quickly

Use limited mobile bandwidth sparingly

The “tubes” are smaller on mobile

Consider the “Fun Per Byte” ratio of technologies:

SMS, MMS, WAP/XHTML, client download

Simple integrations are critical for fast time to market

Social networks need to scale to lots of the carriers

Carriers need to scale to lots of social networks

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued 4. Scalable cost/revenue model

Model must make sense for target demographic

Many on prepay plans, not contract

Some have texting bundle, almost none have data

Used to unlimited free model on the web

But are willing to pay for mobile if it makes sense

Biggest challenge: figuring out scalable model for data + messaging

Data/messaging bundles need to be mass market

Service providers need to be able to deliver push experience (i.e. SMS) cost-effectively

What happens if we don’t figure this out?

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued How do we get there?

Don’t believe the hype – it’s a lot bigger than that

Focus on user experience first, the rest will follow

“ Drink your own kool-aid”: go ahead, get addicted!

How is Bebo trying to get there?

Close partnership with Orange UK for v1.0 launch

Learn + iterate quickly

Roll out v1.0 product globally as fast as we can

“ it’s everywhere you want to Bebo!”

Join Mobile Monday: http://www.mobilemonday.net

Global, open forum for mobile industry:

Mobile as the 7 th Mass Media, continued Thanks for listening… Jordy Mont-Reynaud Lead Mobile Developer, Bebo Mobile Social Networking – Sept 25, 2007 Thanks… and stay in touch! [email_address] http://www.bebo.com/jordy