Mobile Social Networking set to increase ten-fold in LATAM and Africa

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, predicts significant growth for Mobile Social Networking in emerging markets

The market for mobilising Social Networks in Latin America and Africa is set to increase ten-fold to 527 million users by 2015, according to research announced today by Frost & Sullivan and Colibria[1]. Within six years Frost & Sullivan estimates the combined market will be worth almost US$2.4 billion, with growth being driven by increased availability of the internet, mainly through mobile phones.

Jon Stephansen a Senior Consultant with Frost & Sullivan said, "Social networks are an emerging trend in these regions, and due to the lack of fixed infrastructure, the mobile phone is often the only point of access for internet-based services such as social networks. The availability of affordable mobile data service packages is necessary to drive the growing social networking market to the mobile space."

In Africa, mobile penetration is such that mobile connections exceed fixed connections ten to one[2]. Similarly, in South America, 80% of the population have a mobile phone compared to just 25% with regular fixed internet access.

Keith Gibson, CEO of Colibria said: "The specific conditions in these markets have led to an increased need for solutions that make Mobilised Social Networking affordable and easy to implement. This is why we developed the Social Center – to provide operators with a reliable and cost-effective solution that provides all of their subscribers with access to social networks. With the growing consumer interest in social networks, it is important for operators to be able to deliver these services on top of the basic offerings to attract new customers."

With Colibria’s Social Center, updates are pushed to the user so they immediately know when their friends change information on their social network sites. Users can also post content to multiple sites simultaneously, which significantly reduces data usage and therefore cost for the user. Colibria’s Social Center works on feature phones and basic utility phones that dominate in these regions, with solutions also available where data coverage is incomplete. The Social Center is currently being rolled out by operators in these high-growth regions, with Movistar Peru and MTN South Africa already deployed.

[1] Research conducted by Frost & Sullivan, October 2009. Research based on 52 million users in 2009.

^[2] United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 'Information Economy’ Report 2009