La revolución de las comunidades móviles

Hace un tiempo que vengo investigando el tema de las comunidades web y como estas están convergiendo al mundo móvil muchas veces en busca de generar ingresos. En el blog de Pablo ya hemos visto varios post relacionados de alguna forma con esta temática, sobre todo en cuanto al éxito de los mundos virtuales como Second life y virtual penguin world recientemente adquirido por Disney. Solo quería plantear el tema y para eso les posteo este resumen para que entiendan el tamaño de este fenómeno. Si les interesa el tema al final del mismo encontraran uno de los mejores blogs especializados en esta temática.
The first mobile social networking service to go mass market was the mobile version of Cyworld in South Korea which launched in 2003. So prior to 2003 there was zero income out of social networking for mobile. But in only three years, it rocketed to 3.45 B dollars and today powers 55% of all social networking industry revenues. Every major social networking service has, or is developing mobile dimensions from Flirtomatic's cute romantic gifts to Habbo Hotel's Pocket Habbo to Flickr and YouTube mobile editions and now even MMOGs rushing into the mobile space such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Elven Legends. And yes - from zero to 3.45 B in three years? That is a world record, dear readers. The fastest-growing industry of all time. This year 2007 it will be between 5 B and 7 B dollars all by itself. And my guess is that as stories from innovators like Flirtomatic spread along, how much more money can be made on the mobile side - I wouldn't be surprised if the number is even larger.Also please note that the above numbers exclude the sales of goods and services through these social networking sites. I am excluding the value of content sold on eBay, or for example all sponsorship revenue of star players of the world cyber games (yes, there are plenty of full-time videogamers with full corporate sponsorship, like star tennis players or racecar drivers etc) and also excluding the value of user-generated content sold within the worlds by "gold farmers" etc, itself another billion dollar industry which has grown from mostly the MMOG experience.But yes. Total social networking industry worldwide? In round terms 6.5 Billion dollars. And growing by massive rates. Get into this game now. Oh, and PS - if you are a company thinking "what is this social networking or community, should I get into it?" - that is why we wrote the book. Read Communities Dominate Brands, the first business book for social networking and digital communities that covers it all, from blogging to MMOGs to mobile social networking. Its endorsed by very senior management from Coca Cola and Red Bull to Ogilvy and Publicis to emap and Korg. If you want to sample the book, send me an email at tomi at tomiahonen dot com and I'll send you the first chapter excerpt for free by return email.