What Asia can tell us about mobile social networks
Benjamin Joffe, CEO | Plus Eight Star

the mobile professionals community
Agenda
1. Some history
2. It works (in Asia first)
3. It’s not about technology
4. We are safe
5. Barriers and catalysts

the mobile professionals community
Quick survey

the mobile professionals community

Mobile?

the mobile professionals community
Some history

the mobile professionals community
Mobile SNS are not new

the mobile professionals community

the mobile professionals community
Mogi

the mobile professionals community
Launched: 2003

Mobile
the mobile professionals community
Massively
Multiplayer
Ubiquitous
Location-Based
Social
Networking
Service

the mobile professionals community
(MMMULBSNS?)

the mobile professionals community

the mobile professionals community

the mobile professionals community
Acquired in 2004

the mobile professionals community
What changed?

the mobile professionals community
1. Infrastructure
2. Numbers
3. Mobile = media

the mobile professionals community
It works (in Asia first)

100%
80%
USA
3G users
60%
40%
Chin Japa
20% a n
Source: +8* | www.plus8star.com
0%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
% of Internet connections measured above 5Mbps

#2 economy, #1 mobile society
#1 mobile & Internet population
#1 digital society

“Social
Networking
Is Not a Business”
MIT Technology
Review
July/August 2008

Starting date
2004 1997 1999 2004 2006

Registered users
60 mln 500 mln 20 mln 14 mln 10 mln

Country’s Internet users
60 mln 500 mln 20 mln 14 mln n.a.
200 mln 220 mln 35 mln 90 mln 90 mln

Starting date (mobile)
2007 2000 2004 2006 2006

Mobile users (est.)
3 mln 50 mln 6 mln 10 mln 10 mln

Country’s mobile users
3 mln 50 mln 6 mln 10 mln 10 mln
255 mln 580 mln 45 mln 100 mln 100 mln

Revenues 2007 (USD)
150 mln 520 mln ~200 mln 100 mln 150 mln

Profit 2007 (USD)
(50 mln) 225 mln ~100 mln 35 mln ~60 mln

Average Revenue From Users
~0% 87% 80% 5% 50%

Pageviews
PV (PC) 5.48 billion
PV (mobile) 8.31 billion
# of users 14 million
April 2005 April 2006 April 2007 May 2008

Impression unit price
PC
Mobile
April 2005 April 2006 April 2007 May 2008

the mobile professionals community
Community = Media

the mobile professionals community
It’s not about technology

the mobile professionals community
XHTML, Flash, Java

Chat room
WAP Brower Game
Info: finance,
Music player
book, news
E-mail Movie
Qzone (blog)

Cyworld Zone:
Mini hompy Map, Video service
Item shop
My picture 1.Guest book
2.Photo album
Emotion expression 3.Friends list
4.Diary
About service fees
5.Plaza
Find subscribers
6.BBS
Registering for fixed
payment 7.Club
8.’My Cy’ (settings)

Ad banner
Reminders: new “add to my friends” request;
“new message from a friend”, “new comment on
your diary from a friend”
- Main photo (here: Mixi’s CEO)
- Message box,
- Latest diary entries,
- Write an entry (from PC or mobile)
- My photo album
My favorite friends, “Foot-prints” (who visited
my profile page), Search function
My mixi friends’ list (here: 580 friends)
My communities’ list (here: 70 communities)
My profile / My introductions (what friends
wrote about me)
Invite a friend (using mobile email)
Latest diary entries by my friends

18 billion PV / month
Go to “my page”
Invite a friend
“New!”
- New avatar items release
- New game (golf game)
- Get new items by inviting friends
- Get Moba Gold by registering to the site
“Let’s play”
- Games: visual and text on the latest game release
- Decoration mail: animated illustration in your emails
“Let’s gather together”
- Visit MGT town
- Read latest diaries
- Search for new friends
- “Circles” (equivalent of communities)
- Q&A “the Questions market, let’s ask!”

Many other lesser-known mobile SNS around!

the mobile professionals community
Business models
&
Ecosystems

the mobile professionals community
Social Social
Network Network
DNA DNA

SNS = SNS?
Key aspects China Korea Japan
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
PC O O O O X X X
Mobile O O O O O O O
Real name display X O O O X O X
Openness Open Semi- Closed Closed Closed Close Close
(non-members can closed
see profile)
Degrees of 1 1 6 1 1 1 1
connection
Invitation only X X X O X X X
Main Audience 12~25 10~30 n/a 20~30 10s~20s 20~30 10s
Source: +8* | www.plus8star.com

And there is more!
Search functions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
People search
Search engine
Job listings
Source: +8* | www.plus8star.com
Privacy settings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Blog content view
Block search engine
Profile view
Black list
Source: +8* | www.plus8star.com

Mobile SNS = Mobile SNS?
Mobile functions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Blog service
Visitors History
Groups
Photo upload
Video upload
Chat or IM
Games
News
Q&A
Music playlist
Ring-tone/tune
E-commerce
Virtual currency
Avatar
Mobile Pet
Map - LBS
Source: +8* | www.plus8star.com

Identity and “friends” origin
Real name Source: +8* | www.plus8star.com
22 17
?
50 12
Identity
Online
friends
3 270
8
200
Anonymous
4
Mostly offline Friends origin Mostly online

Platform and revenue sources
Source: +8* | www.plus8star.com
Mobile
20 ?
?
Platform
?
25
136
272
136 35 170
PC
B2B Revenue sources B2C
(from advertising) (from users)

Services
Profile page Profile page Profile page Profile page Profile page
Avatars Avatars Avatars
Paid Games BGM Free Games
IM IM IM
Groups Groups Groups Groups Groups
Source: +8* | www.plus8star.com

Sticky features & critical infra
Applications IM “Real” friends Footprints Free Games
Digital currency Digital currency Digital currency
Payment systems Payment systems Affiliate system
Source: +8* | www.plus8star.com

Main business models
Ads Ads Ads Ads Ads
Brand pages Brand pages Brand pages Brand pages Brand pages
Digital goods Digital goods Digital goods Freemium Digital goods
Paid Games Music
Mobile VAS Mobile VAS Mobile VAS
Jobs Affiliates
Source: +8* | www.plus8star.com

the mobile professionals community
Why we are safe

1
Busy at home

2
Lack cross-market expertise

3
Lack cross-cultural expertise

the mobile professionals community
Result: challenges ahead
Facebook, MySpace (US)
Cyworld (Korea)
Mixi, Mobile Game Town (Japan)

the mobile professionals community
Catalysts

1
High speed & Flat fee

2
Payment systems

3
Girls

4
Companies & Schools!

the mobile professionals community
About +8*

There are more ideas professionals community
the mobile
outside your country
than inside
Tom Kelley
CEO, IDEO
The 10 faces of Innovation

“Innovation Arbitrage”
• About us
– +8* | Plus Eight Star is the leading cross-market and cross-cultural
consultancy in Asia.
– We provide local expertise & global perspective on mobile and Internet
innovation from China, Japan and South Korea to add value to and accelerate
the development of our clients’ businesses.
• Our services
– Analysis of proven best practices and business models from Asia
– Other services: executive study trips, market entry strategy, M&A advisory,
partners identification, negotiation support.
• Founder & CEO: Benjamin Joffe
– 9 years experience with mobile & Internet in Asia
– Selected among “China’s Top 100 mobile industry influencers” in 2007
– Regular speaker at events on mobile and Internet in Asia
– Fluent in English, Japanese, French with working knowledge of Mandarin,
Korean and Spanish

Selected References
• Adidas | E-commerce strategy for China, Japan & Korea
• Bouygues Telecom | Cases studies of leading Asian Web 2.0
services and virtual worlds
• Deutsche Telekom / T-Online | Benchmark of Korean mobile &
Internet convergence strategies
• Hemisphere | Analysis of mobile marketing best practices in
Japan and South Korea (Hemisphere is a leading digital
advertising agency), analysis of leading social platforms (SNS,
virtual worlds, online games).
• Microsoft | Analysis of Japan’s key players and market catalysts
for mobile commerce market positioning in China
• DeNA | Case studies of the best practices of leading social
networks in China and South Korea (DeNA operates Mobile
Game Town, Japan’s leading mobile SNS service)
• China Mobile | Benchmark of Korean leading online communities
• Sands Capital Management | Evaluation of China’s investment
opportunities in social networks in China

Social Work
• Mobile Monday
– Founder of the Mobile Monday forum in Beijing since 2006
(3,000+ members, 23 events, over 80 presentations).
• Media
– Monthly column on Asian innovation for Asian Business Leaders
(one of the leading Chinese business magazines), numerous
interviews in international media.
• Events
– Regular keynote speaker and moderator at Internet, Telecom,
Media and Investment events
e.g. ITU Asia, Asia Venture Capital Forum, China Mobility International
Summit, O’Reilly’s Graphing Social Patterns, Red Herring Asia, Media 08
Conference, Wireless Developer Forum, Open Web Asia, XMediaLab,
Mobile Monday Global Summit, etc.)

Contact Us
www.plus8star.com
benjamin@plus8star.com
benjamin0123 +81 | Japan
+82 | Korea
http://twitter.com/plus8star +86 | China
Telecom & Internet
www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminjoffe + Added Value
* High quality
www.slideshare.net/plus8star