Social networking was King (or Queen) in 2006 and mobile is often seen as the heir to that crown for 2007 and beyond. So what better way to hedge your bets than with a mobile social networking service? We've discussed the potential in this market before, specifically noting that Google owns such a service already: Dodgeball. What's more, we noted in our October 2006 post that two growing Web trends are actually very complementary: meta-social networks and mobile. Imagine a scenario where an individual's identity will be increasingly managed by meta-networks, which we will carry with us "in small wireless devices so that our virtual identities become seamlessly integrated with the real world" (to quote a New Scientist article).
Which leads us to Dada, a mobile SNS that enables users to update personal
blogs with pictures and video, download mobile entertainment, connect with and meet other
local singles in real time and stay in contact with all their friends. Dada can be used
on both PC and mobile and dada.net is its portal
destination page. The 3 main products within the portal are Dada Dating, Dada Life
(personal space and social networking), and Mobile
Entertainment.
Here are some stats provided to me by the company:
Those are some hefty figures! Dada has 5.6 million mobile users and is projected to make over $146M in 2006. Also 83% of revenues come from "Web & Mobile value added services", according to the press kit.
In terms of the market for mobile social networking, two companies loom large in this space - MySpace and Google. In December '06, MySpace confirmed a deal with Cingular to allow customers to access their MySpace account via their mobile phone. Google has Dodgeball and is also making business deals with Google Mobile (especially in Asia), and also Yahoo has been active on the mobile front too.
But Dada has been in this space for a couple of years now and is making money to boot. It hails orginally from Italy and now covers 12 countries - Italy, the USA, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Austria, China, Brazil and Australia.
According to some ABI Research figures given to me by the company, mobile social networking is predicted to rise from 50 million to 174 million users by 2011. So it's certain that Dada will face more aggressive competition soon from the likes of MySpace and Google. But for now, Dada appears to be a leader in the mobile social networking space.
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This is the truth about Dada Mobile
- A majority of their users have been aquired with marketing, not viral
- A huge chuck of their revenue comes from ringtones/graphics
subscription that they charge $9.99/month for
- Every 'free' service you try is a path to the $9.99/month subscription, regardless of interface
- Dada does not have a great name among carriers
"But for now, Dada appears to be a leader in the mobile social networking space."
Are you serious? There were number out there just last week asking teen what social networking services they use on their phone. Dada was not on the top of that list, but the usual suspects.
Posted by: Nick | January 18, 2007 3:53 PM
Hi - How about a mobile social network where you can actually (gasp) talk to people?
ccube.com is here and it's free
ccube.com Launches First Over the Phone Social Network.
(Cupertino, CA) - Thinking beyond the email, text-messaging,
PDA and MP3 players, Ccube.com solves the real challenge by making its social
network accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Its members can access the
social network using only a telephone to make new friends, communicate within existing friends, or ask for help.
Ccube.com is a social network with a twist. It's a way of
connecting like-minded people over the phone:
-
Using any phone
- home, cell, VoIP
-
Via any carrier
-
No downloads are
required.
Ccube.com allows you to talk to like-minded people FREE,
while completely protecting your phone number and personal privacy. Members
never see each other's phone numbers, instead the Caller ID will display the
Ccube.com number.
The Ccube.com idea started mid-2005, after seeing people
struggle to make new friends over other social networks. After months of email
and text message exchanges people find the person to be totally incompatible in
the first meeting. Unlike other web-based social networking sites that
instigate initial connections via email - Ccube.com allows you to actually hear
matching member's brief recorded profile before learning more about them. By
hearing their voice profile first, you get a better feeling about that person
before deciding to make contact. And it's all done over the phone so you can
pick the very best match, get connected and talk to your new buddy anytime,
anywhere in the US.
It's FREE to sign up and join at http://www.ccube.com,
and it only takes a minute. Social
networking in a brand new way.
michelle bonat
michelle@ccube.com
Posted by: Michelle Bonat | January 22, 2007 3:49 PM
Just wondering if anybody has tried CellSwapper (http://www.cellswapper.com)
to get out of their phone contracts without paying any early termination
fees?
Posted by: Eric Stern | January 24, 2007 11:15 PM