Report: Location-Based Mobile Social Networks To Generate $3.3 Billion By 2013

Speaking of ABI and social networking, the research firm reports today that mobile social networking  players such as GyPSii, Pelago and Loopt are revolutionizing social networking by allowing users to share real-life experiences via geo-tagged, user-generated multimedia content, exchange recommendations about places, identify nearby friends and set up ad hoc face to face meetings.

So how can marketers take advantage of this?

“Location-based mobile social networking revenues will reach $3.3 billion by 2013, but successful business models may differ from what many observers expect,” says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte, in a statement. “While location-based advertising integrated with sophisticated algorithms holds a lot of promise, the current reality rather points to licensing and revenue-sharing models as the way forward for social networking start-ups to grow their customer base and reach profitability. Recent evidence: the agreements between GyPSii and both Garmin and Samsung. Similarly, Loopt has established partnerships with all major US cellular carriers.”

That said, in BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I look at how brands like Absolut have taken advantage of mobile social networks like Google's Dodgeball, which helps hip, young consumers connect with other hip, young consumers - friends and friends of friends - when they're on the go. As Dodgeball founder Dennis Crowley tells me in the book, in one promotion, consumers could add Absolut to their friend list in order to receive VIP invitations to nearby parties hosted by the brand.

As an advertising (or, at least, marketing) venue, this kind of scenario works so much better than basic ad network advertising. You're taking advantage of the unique attributes of the mobile medium, and you're targeting people who make friends and meet up in the real world, v. while sitting in front of a PC monitor.

For certain lifestyle brands, it makes a potent opportunity.

If you do it right.

Get started, here.

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