The 3G Dating Agency’s Blog

A new analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds the concept of using social networking websites from a mobile phone to be catching on fast in the USA as all top tier mobile operators now offer social networking applications

Oddly the report concludes with something I strongly disagree with: “While the extension of popular online social networking communities onto mobile phones is a major growth driver, it is unreasonable to expect the same level of functionality as is offered through the PC”

Why does Frost & Sullivan’ Senior Analyst Vikrant Gandhi think that a Mobile Community would want to be limited by the functionality offered by a PC when they can be built upon the functionality of a Mobile.

That’s right a communication device that is:
> Never Shared
> Always carried
> Already holding the contact details of all my social contacts
> Subsidized by network revenues
> Location aware
> Has an integrated payment mechanism
> Always on and reachable

Oh and when it’s got 3G it’s also got location awareness down to a few metres, zero latency and an integrated 2-way Audiovisual system!

Mobile Marketing Magazine today reported on research conducted by YouGov and commissioned by anti-spam firm Cloudmark that indicates the level of SMS affecting the UK mobile user experience. Whilst 66% of UK mobile phone users report that they have been victims of spam, this is even higher for those in the 18 to 24 year age group – as many as 75% of whom reported receiving SMS spam.

The survey which explored experiences and attitudes towards mobile spam suggested that Mobile Operators could be the victims as nearly 50% of customers reported that they would consider changing network because of spam SMS and this figure rises quickly as soon as the frequency of unwanted messages hits one or more a month.

The research also reported that SMS spam is already going beyond simple nuisance messages into carefully designed attacks attempting to steal personal information or trick the consumer into spending money. Of the respondents that have been victims of spam, nearly one in ten have been targeted with phishing attacks encouraging them to disclose personal data, 38% received a text containing a link to another site, while 45% received a text message that had tried to trick them into calling a premium rate number.

At The 3G Dating Agency we’re all too aware of SMS spam and we’re careful to ensure that our brand will never involved in any of these damaging premium, subscription or data harvesting attempts. We only ever send SMS’ to ask already registered customers to log in to our site to read their new messages. We NEVER use SMS to request customers to call numbers, download applications to their mobile. We also have a strict policy in which we ensure our advertisers NEVER get access to our customers mobile phone numbers.

We got some great news today. The organisers of the Mobile User Experience Conference announced us as winners of a Mobile Monday Scholarship to exhibit at their upcoming event on the 27th- 28th May 2008 in London. Visit the conference page for more info.

Other winners included AddWit, EmbedAi and Rummble

The value of the prize is an exhibitor package worth £2,495 including exhibition stand, pre-event marketing support and conference passes for themselves and a colleague to attend MEX.

It’ll be another great opportunity for us to present our ideas and debate with key decision makers from the mobile business so come along by registering for one of the few remaining seats here

Cell C, South Africa’s smallest GSM network operator, have announced their first ever operating profit at a company presentation and their CEO, Jeffrey Hedberg, has dismissed 3G as hype:

“3G is hype and we won’t fall prey to hype”

His CFO, Fabrizio Mambrini, rallied the audience by claiming that WCDMA technologies are already being supplanted with operators starting to talk about 4G based services.

What an incredible claim! Not only are there not even agreed standards for a 4th generation of mobile telecommunications but it’s so out of touch with the reality of today and ignorant of the >100 million subscribers who are already using 3G.

If you need any more convincing that 3G will dominate 4G for the next 10 years take a look at the following news links:

French Introduce 3G in the 900 & 1800 MHz Bands

Thomson & Nokia Siemens Networks co-operate on 3G Femto Home Access Solution

The potential for photos and videos sent as part of private conversations to be quickly spread once online has again hit the headlines amid fears that they could become part of a sexual predator’s collection.

This is another reason why we have such strict controls on the type of messages we allow members to send through our service. Sometimes people just don’t think before they send something so we hope it continues to be helpful to have controls in place to help prevent mistakes people could later regret.

Ohio News

Dispatch

Michael Arrington continues to be bullish on the Mobile Social Networking Opportunities with a “I Saw The Future Of Social Networking The Other Day” story over at TechCrunch.

“The space is wide open at this point – no one has created an application that has gotten enough traction to go mainstream. That’s partly because of tech limitations – browser based networks don’t leverage the power of the mobile device, and client based applications are blocked by service providers and handset limitations. But it’s coming. A few years from now we’ll use our mobile devices to help us remember details of people we know, but not well. And it will help us meet new people for dating, business and friendship. Imagine walking into a meeting, classroom, party, bar, subway station, airplane, etc. and seeing profile information about other people in the area, depending on privacy settings. Picture, name, dating status, resume information, etc. The information that is available would be relevant to the setting – quick LinkedIn-type information for a business meeting Vs. Facebook dating status for a bar”.

The finalized programme for July Mobile Social Networks & UGC conference has gone live.

Download it from the IIR/Informa Website

The list of co-presenters is very impressive:

Amer Hasan, Senior Manager, Vodafone Group
Antonio Vince Staybl, CEO, Itsmy.com
Axel Diehl, Head of Community Messaging, Product & Innovations, T-Mobile
Christophe Hocquet, CEO, MOBLR.COM
Christine Perey, Lead Analyst, Perey Research & Consulting
Gloria Ruhmund, WASP – General Manager, Glocell Wireless
Mark Curtis, CEO, Flirtomatic
Martin Duval, Director Orange Start-up Program & CEO Bluenove
Neyran Sen, Senior Product Manager, Turkcell
Olive Stacey, New Product Development Manager, O2
Olivier Laury, Content Director, Bouygues Telecom
Peter Grupp, Senior Product Manager, Sunrise – TDC Switzerland
Sam Critchley, Vice President, Gypsii
Tim Hyland, Strategic Partnerships, GOOGLE YOUTUBE

I’ll be giving a keynote on Maximising Mobile Advertising Opportunities so please get in touch if there is anything in particular you’d like me to talk about.

It’ll be a great gathering of the who’s who of mobile communities and i look forward to catching up in Amsterdam if you can make it along.

Predicting the future during an address at GoaFest 2008 Mr D. Shivkumar, CEO of Nokia India, excitedly told of how entertainment was to transform in the next 2-3 years with the introduction of 3G in India.

Addressing an advertising agency exec audience Mr Shivkumar said: “I can already see it happening, the question is whether you, as advertising agencies, are gearing up for 3G”.

Read more coverage at Brand Dossier

In Dublin today where I’ll be demoing to an Irish Tech Crowd

Jump to the TechLudd Dubln Blog for full details

Welcome to our blog. In this first post i’m going to try and sum up the several ways in which our service delivers on this central promise:

1) Because the entire service runs on any mobile browser its possible to use any spare time you have to sign up, create your own multimedia profile and browse  to find other members you like.

2) Because it’s mobile you can send messages to other members whenever and wherever the impulse takes you

3) Because it’s mobile you can recieve messages whenever the impulse takes one of your admirers.

 Pretty  simple hey?