Sunday, December 9, 2012

Why are there huge opportunities in Connecting People through Mobile Social Messaging?



Closing off 2012 soon - how time flies in today's increasingly mobile and social world!
Mary Meeker recent year end presentation of 2012 internet trends at Stanford offered further insights on the insurmountable momentum our world is going mobile and how we are always-on in connecting with one another via social networks.

3 key points struck home ...
  1. Emerging markets are driving the 8% year on year growth of internet users from 2008 to 2012.
  2. Indonesia (#3), Philippines (#7) and Vietnam (#15) rank amongst the top 15 globally in terms of internet user adds.
  3. In Q4'12, Indonesia (#8), Philippines (#17), Thailand (#19), Malaysia (#21) rank amongst the top 30 globally in terms of smartphone subscribers.

Globally, we have also witnessed the growing trend of consumers all around consuming content (news, photos and videos etc) online and increasingly on mobile. Sharing the content they consume from the social networks, online portals and discussion forums is becoming a reflex action due to our need to share and connect (and what better now with mobile technology facilitating the the content sharing).

The "Mobile messaging trends" presentation from CapGemini consulting (see below attached) provide further evidence on how our mobile consumers are transiting from SMS to Facebook chat and Whatsapp instant messaging  applications (IM apps).



In Southeast Asia, the market is growing to become a hotbed for mobile social communicator services (read below on the Southeast Asia market landscape). While today largely driven by WhatsApp and mobile Facebook chat users, the market is attracting a number of other players like KakaoTalk, WeChat, Naver Line etc.


Southeast Asia Mobile Internet Market Landscape - a Nelson Wee view from Nelson Wee

With the growing demand in connecting with people in today's on-the-go economy, more and more, we  will continue to see innovation in new players with fresh and quicker ways to discover and share your favourite media contents in your mobile chats with friends. I leave you now with a new mobile social messenger TicTocPlus from SK planet (now available for iOS and Android smartphones - disclosure: I am currently at SK planet Southeast Asia). Have fun and do feel free to offer your open feedback~



Talk soon~
@nelsonwee
read more about my profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonwee

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