Social Networking is dead, long live mobile social networking

Venturebeat has an interesting article on Xumii, a new kid on the block with regard to mobile services. They offer a convergence social networking application for mobiles where you can keep in contact with all your freinds and family irrespective of what social networking site they belong to.

Xumii supports Facebook, AIM, Windows Live, Google, Yahoo and Flickr.

This is a crowded market space, with everyone including my mum launching a social networking site - I kid you not!. Xumii though are claiming something very rare for a mobile start up, carriers are approaching them according to Chief Exec Jennifer Zanich. Says Zanich carries see Xumii as “an open version of Yahoo One Connect.”

Xumi promisses to offer the following in their private beta:

All contacts from all social communities in the one place/list

Presence & Availability – Status updates from mobile phone, social networks and IMs

Ability for IM and offline communications that are persistent and threaded (history of chat)

Groups – a microblogging shared private space one can invite others to

Share rich graphics, photos, music, video, interactive apps (widgets)

Walls –Personal Mobile Message Board – post messages, photos, interactive applications
Xummi are aiming very much for the consumer market and not a white label service. Despite this they are in a number of discussions with carriers on a revenue share of the data plan and transactions - good deal if they can get it. They launch a private beta at the end of the month and Ill try to get included and report back.

Everyone is saying its a forgone conclusion that Facebook/Myspace are going to run the show. I don’t think they will, neither of them is a natural fit for mobile. Yes u can do your status, write a message on a wall etc etc, but is this really the best a mobile social networks can be? I think not. The winner IMHO will be a service that throws in localisation, reviews of events, films, restaurants and the like with live interaction with people around you. This is my vision of Mobile Social Networking, who joins me?

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