More feedback from our presentation on mobile SNS @ GSP East

It takes a few days for dust to settle after a conference, and see reports emerging. Here is what we collected about our presentation – thanks to all for your kind words and looking forward to a future opportunity to meet again :-)

Technotheory (Jared Goralnick)
I always like reminders that the U.S. is very different than the rest of the world online. Benjamin Joffe’s presentation explains both the social networks in Asia and their penetration amongst mobile users. This is especially relevant since much of technology’s early adoption takes There First Place.

MASRAQI (Farhan “Frank” Mashraqi, Director of Business Ops. & Technical Strategy @ Fotolog)
After hearing the thoughts of Benjamin Joffe (Plus Eight Star), I wanted to engage in discussion about mobile social networking and monetization with him. Benjamin had unmatched insight into how to monetize social networks and factors behind the success of mobile social networking in Asian markets. His presentation was one of my favorite ones.
Extra notes from Frank Mashraqi.

360o Digital Influence | Ogilvy PR Blog
(Mike Mangi / John Bell)
An interesting prediction came from Benjamin Joffe in the session Social + Mobile = Sociable (Social Networks for Mobile Devices). He predicted that as companies and schools lock down access to social networks on the PCs they provide, employees and students will be driven to use mobile social networks. I think we’re already seeing that in the U.S. with Twitter.

There Goes Dave (Dave Jeyes)
+8*: some numbers have been edited from the original post
For me, the most valuable perspective on mobile social networking at the GSP East Conference came from hearing Benjamin Joffe of Plus Eight Star speak about the maturity of the social networking industry in Asia. Benjamin presented data on the four largest social networks in Asia, QQ, Cyworld, Mixi and Mobile Gametown which represent over 345 million active accounts throughout Asia. We’ve all heard that Asian users have more advanced cell phone technology and Joffe put 3G high speed data penetration as high as 80% in some countries (+8*: Japan and South Korea).

Of the 345 million active users to these four largest social networking sites in Asia, from 10% to 100% log via mobile. The highest percentage of mobile users comes from Mobile Game Town, a pure mobile SNS. This comes in stark contract to American sites like Facebook, with at best a few million of their 60 million registered users being mobile. Obviously mobile web access and data speeds in the US are much lower, but how are the mature social networking markets different?

2 Major Differences
Joffe also pointed out two other major differences between the Asian and US social networking markets: a digital currency/ payment system and the prominence of online games on Asian social sites (+8*: on some services only: Mobile Game Town – where they are central – and QQ, where games are secondary to IM). The Asian counterparts also tend to have some sort of Avatar system, but I’m not sure how popular virtual worlds would be on Facebook or Myspace. (+8*: only one way to know :-) actually avatars do not need virtual worlds, and several have been working very well in Western markets).