Mobile Social Networking and Gaming

Introduction

Our world has become more connected through social networking and our digital world more vivid and exciting through advanced media and entertainment options. With mobile devices, it’s only natural that these technologies will be made compact and concise for streamlined access while out and about.

Though connectivity differs vastly between countries, modern technologies mean that just about everyone is online. Now anyone with a little programming or media know-how can create and syndicate commercial content. These services are now breaking free of the desktop boxes to provide access and functionality in the mobile context.

Key Terms and Concepts

Ad Request	When an advert is displayed on a mobile site.
Advertising Platform	A platform for creating and managing advertising campaigns.
API	Stands for Application Programming Interface. The guidelines and protocols for a chosen application.
Cloud Computing	The concept of remote storage and access of software and/or hardware.
Content Portal	An aggregator of content for either free or paid download.
Facebook Connect	The developer's platform for Facebook.
Geotag	When content is tagged with the physical location at which it was created or uploaded.
GPS	Stands for Global Positioning System. Satellite-based positioning technology that allows a GPS receiver to calculate its position anywhere on earth with great accuracy.
In-browser Applications	An application which is embedded into a webpage and run via the Web browser.
Instant Messaging	Instant Messaging (IM) is a technology that allows its users to communicate in real-time, via text chat. The IM system alerts you when a contact on your list is online and you can then initiate a live chat session.
MXit	A popular mobile instant messaging application.
SDK	Stands for Software Developer's Kit. Tools and guidelines for developers.
Smartphone	These handsets have advanced capabilities and allow users to add applications to their phones. They usually have a QWERTY keypad and include 3G and WiFi capabilities.
SMS	Stands for Short Message Service. Electronic messages sent on wireless network.
Social Networking	In the online sense, this refers to a type of website model where individual members become part of a broader virtual community.

Mobile Social Networking

Social networking websites such as Facebook, account for an increasing majority of total Internet traffic. And the rise of mobile connectivity is only set to make socialising online that much easier.

MyGamma is a mobile community, offering moblogs, groups and photo albums. Operated by the BuzzCity ad platform, the advertising placements on the social network increased dramatically between the first quarters of 2007 and 2008.

In Indonesia, the number of ads displayed rose 13 328% (to a total of 654 million) while it rose by 1522% in India (577 million) and 418% in South Africa (426 million ad displays).

A lot of these desktop based sites have versions and applications designed for mobile phones. Many even offer basic SMS based communication to make connecting easier for those without direct access, mobile or otherwise.

Platforms like MXit provide Instant Messaging within the network. Available on a wide range of phones, and desktop computers, users pay a miniscule amount for real-time chatting with their contacts and making new friends.

Alternatively, third party applications like Beejive provide Instant Messaging services to iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile users, but combine their existing chat accounts, such as MSN, Gtalk and MySpace chat to provide integrated communication on the move.

In June 2007, 12.3 million people accessed social networking sites in the US and Western Europe, alone.
In January 2008, 49.7% of iPhone users accessed a social networking site or blog.
The projected number of mobile social networking users globally has been projected to reach 7% in 2010 and 18% in 2012.
In January 2009, Twitter received over 735 000 unique mobile visitors.

Mobile social network access provides similar features and functions to desktop access depending on the device, operating system, browser or client. Multimedia content is compressed and news feeds summarised.

The following social networking sites all have sites designed for mobile access:

Mobile Entertainment

Ever since the days of Snake on the Nokia 5110, games and entertainment applications have been a popular feature of mobile devices, and are common on today’s basic phones.

Despite this, gaming has not been as widely adopted as you may think. To paint a broad picture, only 3.8% of generic mobile users have downloaded a game, while 32.4% of iPhone users have downloaded at least one game with their advanced smartphone.

Mobile entertainment doesn’t only refer to games, however. There are many content portals offering games and other multimedia downloads such as wallpapers, tones, video tones, viral videos and even reviews and news on new releases.

Theoretically, one may think that the mobile game market serves mostly to males between the ages of 15 to 25 (as is the typical gaming demographic), but when it comes to mobile, the market caters for a much wider range of entertainment seekers.

Women between the ages of 30 and 40, for instance, prove avid gamers on the smallest screen. Hardly Shoot ‘Em Ups or RPGs, simpler puzzle games such as Soduko and Tetris are some of the most popular overall, and especially so with older women.

Often, developers will create applications that can be quickly skinned and re-branded to suit any market or campaign.