Let’s dissect the
numbers (and make some assumptions).
A $3.3 billion market with 80 million users, that’s an
average of 58 million users generating $4.8 / user month or $0.20/ day in 2013. At $5-20 CPM net (avg. $12.50), means that
each user has to generate 16 page views per day – that’s high if you are just searching for your closest friends. Currently to open a page enter information
(16 characters), click return, and receive a page of results takes about 28 seconds,
including network delay – 8-10 minutes per day, that’s achievable. The point is that getting the page views is easier than the achieving the daily habitual usage.
Other income will come from licensing deals, like Gypsii and Garmin
that will support the short term mobile social networking coffers; rev. share partnerships, between
FaceBook and Loopt, that will increase frequency of use and customer acquisition; there
will be a combination of native and third party apps populating added to the
mobile social networking experience that may bring further revenue. However I think these items will have a marginal impact in the short run.
People’s lives have got to revolve around their mobile social
network service. They have got to reach for
the app as often as they look at their email inbox (more than use voice
features). There has got to be
excitement and new possibility “pushed” from the phone constantly. The mobile's intimacy and convenience is a huge asset.
The obvious extension is the opportunity to meet new people with whom they share interests. The CTIA US Privacy Guidelines (I led the early team drafting the early privacy provisions) are complete and new introductions are now possible. Privacy can be modulated to create a safe experience (click here to read more about privacy). When social networking becomes about advancing one’s self socially and professionally, expanding one’s contact base, that’s when it grabs you, that’s a big part of the answer.
About Julian Bourne
Julian Bourne is an inventor of mobile social networking and
other award-winning GPS mobile applications. He was granted a mobile
social networking patent US #7,310,676 and a further patent allowed; He
launched the world's first location-based (AGPS) mobile social
networking application in the UK provisioned to events attended by
500,000 people (Oct 2004); won the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge, best social networking application, April
2006 (4 winners / 140 entrants); He has built the first GPS navigation
application personalized to the digital calendar. This patent pending
product is called Prompt. It makes sure people are never late, and has
been described as "a service more intelligent and resourceful than
anything we've seen before" (Mobile Messenger 2.0, July 2008). Proxpro
is based near Boston MA.
