There is an undoubted battle MSP's need to fight which is to avoid being reduced to a mobile pipeline of data and voice traffic.

SNS being the content foundation of today's internet traffic plays such an important role that it deserved its own category within the Value Added Services (VAS) of Internet as well as Mobile Internet Content providers business. SNS attaches to it all sorts of services and need a constant development and innovation of applications to fulfil those services and rightfully so consumer are happy to pay and even increase their monthly budget for telecommunications products if the Social Networking (SN) need is being satisfied.

For this the following pillars are essential to grasp for any MSP who find themselves in a normal and healthy competitive environment and understands the importance of SNS:

  • 1. - Mobile Social Networking would use the carrier's network to communicate using the internet or SMS or MMS. There is no doubt that the usage on mobile would eventually exceed that on PC but even if the usage on mobile phone equals that on PC, the access charges could be huge. SMS based sites like twitter require an international SMS to be sent out which in many countries is at a higher price
  • 2. - If the mobile social networking becomes a norm, there would be many more users who would want to use mobile phones for connecting with their communities. This would give a reason to many users to subscribe to mobile internet leading to higher revenues for the operator
  • 3. - Adopting mobile social networking would differentiate one mobile operator from another giving it a peppy and technology leader image. Operators can claim to be Youth focused as social networking is generally associated with Youth
  • 4. - Great social networking experience with current carrier could just be another reason for the subscribers not to churn. At the same time, it may attract new subscribers to the operator fold
  • 5. - By adopting social networking, MSP can hope to get a pie of the lucrative advertising revenues. Research points in a very qualified guess towards the revenues from mobile social networking to hit a startling $ 60 billion by 2012, a bulk of which is likely to be advertisement revenues.

SNS Strategy?

The benefits of adopting SNS are very clear but the key question facing MSP's is how to leverage on the SNS. There are three basic SNS strategies adopted by world MSP: , build an in-house SNS from scratch which either entails investing directly in R&D or engage 3rd party firm to build SNS platform. , promoting an existing and famous 3rd party SNS to the subscribers. , partner with a dedicated mobile SNS platform provider, customize it for the local Mobile subscriber base, own the platform through an in-house or hosted model and evolve together with platform. As experts in the area with a substantial amount of time and funds invested as well as a global reach and experience we simply can't say anything else than that we bet our hard earned money on the fact that the best strategy for the MSP is to partner with an established platform vendor to build their own social networking, reasons for which are:

  • - Although the advantage of building from scratch is clear in that the operator can own and control the platform to a 100%, the risk involved in building something from scratch is way too high in terms of costs, expertise and consumer acceptability. 3rd party social network service providers have already recruited the most relevant experts in the industry focused on mobile SNS exclusively, and they have invested in R&D and customer support, which will consistently improve the SNS service quality and features for long term.
  • There are many successful 3rd party SNS's which the early adopters are already using such services from mobile, promoting such service directly to the mass subscribers could save a lot of time and effort. However this is the most risky and unadvised strategy, as first, Brand, most of such service launch will take the 3rd party brand, it is a risk of giving away the carrier's most valuable asset, "the consumer ownership" to 3rd party. Second, the proven service provide would likely to work with your direct competition, which will make long term advantage and differentiation value of mobile social network impossible. Third, the most profitable part of social network service is never the basic service; it is always the value added service above the basic social features. Giving up the control or access to such service to 3rd party is actually giving up huge revenue potential to 3rd party for short-term brand advantage.

Our anticipated but sincere advice would be, don't try this at home...