Business idea - steal it!
 

- Social networking sites are huge right now
- Mobile internet is on the rise and has a huge future
- The mobile versions of things like MSN Messenger suck badly right now

So the first person to start up a decent mobile social networking site probably has a decent chance of being a gazillionaire in a few years. What would probably work best is a webbased social networking site that includes message functions (with the possibility for both public and private messages, so it could function as an instant messaging program of sorts as well as a social networking site).

If you make it entirely free and make it easy to make optimized-for-mobile pages and pictures, millions of kids (14-24) will love it. They are already used to text messaging and sites like myspace, and what this would offer is basically a myspace/messenger combo that is available anywhere. Of course, it should be usable with normal browsers as well.

Oh, and if you take this idea and make loads of money, please, do give me some :winkwink:

It is a great idea. But you are talking major cash to get it started, unless you can do a good portion of the work yourself.

idea noted. i will get one underway with a "Short-ID" that will act like a mobile number but as the numbers of the site increase the short-ID's will soon become a rare factor as soon as 99 have been given out.. imagine how rich emmbers could be if they cdecided to sell there sort id of number "50" they would be fuckin millionaires.. id have to ban the selling of numbers under four digits long. images te profit from a "666" :hitit
ill spend around $2000-$5000 on this as ive just hit the jacpot on www.**********

If it's just a WAP destination, there's really no other costs then what a regular site would be.

If it's going to have SMS capabilities, then yea - you gotta buy the shortcode $$, integrate with an SMS aggregator $$ and then have the infrastructure to handle SMS messaging $$ / dev time.

But again, the bleeding edge takes some investment to build and if it's a hit, then you're bound to make bank.

MASSIV cash is needed to promote such a new service.

No major cash is needed for developing the basic site. Programming is the same as for normal sites, with just a few extra things to make it look good on a small screen. A few thousand dollars, tops, in programming. Hosting will be cheaper than it is for "normal" sites, since you'll be using less bandwidth.

A real problem is the initial marketing budget. You'll need to get a good amount of users before the real virality sets in, enough to make using the site worthwhile.

Only when the site is up and turning a profit do you need to start thinking about special sms services, which will cost you a fair chunk of money (but which should make even more).

It's much more likely that an existing social networking site would simply launch a mobile version of its service. The idea is really an extension of an old idea and you still need a network to connect on the new medium.

Not really. It won't be cheap either, at least initially, but the concept is built on virality - people who use the service telling others about it.

I agree, it would be much better for existing social networking sites to do it, but they haven't. Therefore, there is now a gap in the market, and one which can be taken advantage of.

Things move quickly these days and site loyalty is low among young people. The right site could capture this niche market in a matter of months, even before the dominant players get a chance to react. Once they start doing it, it will be too late to start something like it yourself, but act first and you have a chance.

Nice idea man, how come your not working on the idea yourself ?

Wow great idea man....

why dont YOU start it?

I want to spend the next 10 years locked in a library studying and writing on philosophy of mind, maybe get my phd and stuff. That doesn't leave much time to set up something like this.

Fair enought :)

Can I ask what benifits your getting from studying philosophy or what important things you've learnt from it ? Just curious :)

Btw I enjoyed your post on your thoughts of prostitution that you made a while ago, it was very interesting

Your nick change freaked me out for a sec.

Got home, logged onto the board and said "WTF. I don't remember replying to a thread started by Libertine."

:)

the problem is not setting it up
dont you think people thought of that already
problem are the costs
you would have to pay for example normal cell phone internet costs
nobody will pay that

Philosophy is just extremely interesting once you get into it, addictive almost. For example, right now I'm studying the concept of qualia. Qualia are the experienced contents of consciousness, that is, the "what's it like"-ness of human experience.
The rather interesting (and hard) question is how actual experience can arise from matter. How is it possible that humans not only process information, act upon it, etc. (these things are commonly known as "the easy problem" in philosophy of mind), but also actually feel and experience their own consciousness (known as "the hard problem")? In other words, how does conscious experience arise from matter?
What I'm trying to do right now is to create an argumentation explaining why the combination of (self-)awareness and the capacity to have beliefs pertaining to the self is sufficient for consciousness, and why any structure with these characteristics will also have consciousness.
It may sound like a dull subject, but it seriously keeps me lying awake at night :1orglaugh

Ehm... I pay for internet access on my cellphone. A whole wopping ?6 a month for 256 MB (which is more than enough to visit thousands of pages optimized for cell phones).

Right now, almost all mobile service providers are fighting over the emerging mobile internet market, through things like UMTS, EDGE, etc. Also, internet service providers are studying the possibilities of technologies like WiMax to provide wireless access everywhere.

In a matter of years, cheap mobile internet will be everywhere. Since people - especially young people - won't be lugging laptops around everywhere they go, mobile phones are quite likely to become the #1 method for getting online while not sitting behind a computer.

with all of the recent press about myspace facilitating abuctions and run-aways, i don't know if you'd want to take on that potential legal battle.

great idea... but... it is being done, by large players & well-funded startups. there's always room for more players, but do a quick search on google for: "mobile social software"

in fact, one company has signed deals with almost all large carriers... non exclusive of course, but keep on search google and setup news alerts for "mobile social" and you'll find plenty.

here's some recent news: May 2006
http://www.businessweek.com/print/te...530_170086.htm
if you want to see where the future of social networks is heading read THAT article...

spend your time trying to find ways to tap into that lucrative market.

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Damn. Should've expected that. I should've googled it before posting, for that matter :1orglaugh

That's gonna be huge here in the Philippines. Probably might get bought out by PLDT if implemented right. There's already versions of this but not as centralized as your idea.

my idea is to do the same thing but get a contract with widows mobile providers becasue my application would be for windows mobile. that way people would want a windows mobile and come time to upgrade there phone what would they want ?
the ability to view and post comments on myspacxe profiles and accept/send freinds requests.
thats what people want.
Future. Is. Here.

mobile.myspace.com


lmao

It sounds far from dull, It sounds like you need to be pretty intelligent to understand it all :)

*cough* myspace mobile *cough*

what was your previous nick?

myspace...hmm..yeah um ok

myspace was already all over this one

Punkworld

That's pretty true. But it's doable all from scratch.

Yup, but they were dumb enough to go into an exclusive contract with Helio. Facebook, on the other hand, seems to have a mobile version that works with all mobile phones. In other words, it's already being done, and on a large scale.

There could still be some space in some national and niche markets, though.

myspace may not prove to be the MoSoSo leader in the end. like I said above, another player (not myspace or facebook or dodgeball), is closing deals with all carriers to allow the carriers to run their own MoSoSo networks and then allow shared backends down the road: centralized membership, etc... but anyone can compete, even without the carriers as partners... no need to get permission from the carriers... they will not block you because you are generating income for them and building brand loyalty. One important fact: Verizon recently signed a deal with a company that will help make things a reality. I won't draw a map for anyone... but there's gold out there... plenty of it. Look what Japan is doing with Mo-So-So & Lo-Mo-So and you'll see how lucrative that industry can be. IMHO, any company that signs an exclusive contract with carriers is making a big mistake... short-sighted. We're working "alongside" the carriers, but not relying on them.

anyway... there's more to the story... but you can find everything you need out there on the interweb. good luck.

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Webbased service for mobile sucks, Imagine having a contactlist of 100+ users. Better is to use Java wich is supported on most mobile phones and is much faster and stable.

Best Regards,
Adult SEO

already done