BRANDING UNBOUND

Cingular Moves Into MySpace

MySpace Cadets are going mobile with Cingular.

Reuters is reporting that Cingular, the largest US mobile carrier, will offer a version (underscore "a version") of MySpace on its phones, for about $2.99 a month. With the service, cadets can upload photos taken on their camera phones, read and respond to MySpace e-mail, update blog entries and view and search for friends on their handset.

As longtime readers know, MySpace is also available on MVNO Helio, and that Cingular has been offering ringtones of bands on MySpace for months.

We'll see how this new effort works out. MySpace no doubt lost a lot of cache with kids the moment NewsCorp. acquired it for $580 million last year.

Simply extending one experience into another medium rarely works.

And mobile social networking services like Dodgeball (acquired by Google) are so much more interesting – and useful – in the mobile medium.

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70% of Teens Into Social Networking - And A Growing Number Are Taking It Mobile

That's the word from M:Metrix, which found that 70% of 13- to 17-year-olds engage in social networking or some form of content creation - with Italian teens leading their peers in the UK an US. And a growing number of them are going mobile

"Much as teens were the early adopters of PC-based social networking applications, they have proven to be the innovators in the mobile arena," says Paul Goode, vice president and senior analyst, M:Metrics. "Although teenagers and young adults make up only six to 10 percent of mobile subscribers, they generate more than their fair share of mobile content."

According to the research firm, phone-to-phone photo messaging is the most popular form of user-generated content. But video messaging and user-created ringtones are increasingly popular.

"There is a direct correlation between 3G penetration and video messaging," observed Goode. "With the proliferation of better networks comes moderately priced, highly capable devices that are appropriate for younger users. As better, cheaper devices enter these markets on faster networks, we would expect mobile content consumption to increase significantly, particularly among this highly connected demographic."

Quick links:

BRANDING UNBOUND The Book
ADWEEK Magazines Excerpt
GENERATION WOW
Rick Mathieson .com