Future uptake of mobile social networking in Europe will be critical to European mobile operators, handset vendors, software developers and, of course, SNSs themselves. Pyramid Research believes that the opportunity for mobile social networking in Europe is rich; technical issues, such as the penetration of 3G networks and advanced handsets, that are of paramount importance to many other markets are, with few exceptions, non-issues in most European markets, and both mobile operators and SNSs are motivated toward a joint future. We believe the total number of mobile social networking users in Europe reached 52m in 2009 and is likely to grow to 112m in 2010. This strong uptake of mobile social networking in Europe will be driven by a quality user experience, operators’ efforts to promote mobile social networking and campaigns by SNSs aimed at increasing mobile access among their users.
This report looks at the social networking business model and analyzes its future, including forecasting the number of social networking members expected in Europe by 2014. We look at three possible drivers of uptake: a quality user experience based on the high penetration of 3G and smartphones that we project across Europe; operators’ efforts aimed at increasing mobile social networking uptake; and the efforts of social network providers to promote the value of mobility among their users. Case studies examine Orange and Telefónica.
Published monthly for each of the world’s most dynamic regions, Telecom Insiders are packed with trend analysis, industry best practices, market sizing and forecasting, competitor analysis, and case studies, providing you information you can leverage to make better business decisions. For more information about Telecom Insiders, please contact us via email at info@pyr.com or telephone at (617) 871-1900
