Web2.0 and mobile IM

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Web2.0 war spreads to mobile IM, scramble for discourse power before 3G

2006-7-10

With the impending arrival of 3G, the demonstration effect of 2G services, and the widespread development of web2.0, over the past year or so, under the stimulation of these favorable factors, mobile Internet services based on 2.5G are gradually eliminating the obscure factors from the policy, technology, application and other levels, showing an explosive growth trend.

From telecom operators to Internet content providers (ICPs) and Internet service providers (ISPs), all are sharpening their knives and trying out killer applications such as MMS (Multimedia Messaging), WAP, JAVAY, mobile commerce, mobile search, and mobile IM in order to occupy their sphere of influence and compete for the right to speak on standards before 3G comes on the scene.

At the same time, a large number of venture capital, venture capital and industrial capital have flocked in and made heavy bets in this field.

In 2005, Palm Infinity, which became famous for operating the mobile IM platform PICA, received a $10 million investment from BlueRun Ventures and IDG Technology Venture Capital. Shortly afterwards, another mobile search company Cgogo also received $5 million from JAFCO Asia.

This year, VCs are still enthusiastic. In January, Tencent acquired Zoemax, a wireless value-added service provider, and Kongzhong.com acquired Sharp Edge, a wireless value-added service provider. In April, Monstermob, the largest mobile phone ringtone and game manufacturer in the UK, acquired Beijing Wanxuntong for $81.5 million. During this period, Youku, which started with a search funding model, and UTV, which received $10 million from Sequoia Capital and SIG, also set their sights on the wireless streaming media field.

Mobile Internet 2.0

Attracted by the popularity of mobile Internet, operators such as China Mobile and China Unicom have also been caught up in it.

As early as last year, the services provided by Mobile Dream Network to mobile users included WAP portal, MMS, PDA portal, SMS, treasure box, games, ringtones, voice magazines, mobile salons, mobile photo albums, mobile mailboxes and mobile wallets, etc. Since this year, in order to continue to maintain its leading position in the mobile industry chain and complete the role transformation from a telecommunications operator to a mobile value-added service provider, Mobile Dream Network is constantly brewing new mobile Internet services.

In January this year, China Mobile officially launched the commercial use of "Fetion", a comprehensive instant messaging tool based on JAVA, SMS and WAP service platforms. The platform integrates multiple functions such as IM, PTT (one-touch talk), Email, file transfer, etc., and also has functions such as free SMS, voice chat and passionate speed matching. In June this year, Mobile DreamNet announced that it would suspend cooperation with various SPs engaged in IM business, and would no longer add chat community DreamNet services to various DreamNet business lines.

China Mobile's ambitions go far beyond this. In May, China Mobile launched the "Mobile Mailbox" and "Black Berry" services for group customers; then, in June, China Mobile and UnionPay's joint venture, Liandong Advantage, began to plan to launch a mobile online shopping platform under Mobile Dream Network, the "Mobile Mall"; in addition, China Mobile's subsidiary Beijing Mobile and its affiliated company Liandong Advantage have also worked together with Shanghai Jieyin, Palmtong, Yunwang and others to develop and launch multiple third-party mobile payment platforms.

Will China Mobile's strategic shift to mobile value-added services squeeze out the market space of other emerging companies? Zhu Bo, CEO of mobile search company Cgogo, said that China Mobile's entry into the mobile Internet is more to strengthen the control and integration of the entire mobile network industry chain, but will not take over everything. A large number of content and services on the platform will still be provided by many CPs and SPs.

It is understood that Cgogo's mobile search engine has been launched on China Unicom and China Mobile. The company has previously launched a number of services including WAP advertising system and mobile real-name service.

Mobile IM is hot

As mobile phone processing power and mobile network bandwidth continue to increase, multimedia data applications related to mobile Internet are becoming an increasingly important factor for operators to increase data revenue, increase ARPU value and attract users. The vague vision of 3G services, which are about to come, has also invisibly strengthened the attractiveness of mobile Internet.

For mobile value-added service providers, porting existing Internet applications, especially the emerging web2.0 applications, to mobile networks while innovating is undoubtedly a shortcut. Therefore, Internet companies, including portal websites, have made mobile Internet the focus of their future strategies.

Take the IM market as an example. Tencent QQ, the largest IM company in China, relied on its huge number of registered users and traffic on PCs, and launched the mobile QQ service as early as 1999 by bundling it with mobile text messages. Microsoft's MSN did not launch mobile MSN until September 2005. Although China Mobile announced that the wireless services of Tencent QQ and MSN would only last until the end of this year after launching the IM tool "Fetion" in early June, analysts revealed that since Tencent and MSN will still provide technical support for Mobile Dream Network, they will still be able to obtain revenue sharing in the future.

Despite this, industry insiders still have doubts about whether Mobile QQ and Mobile MSN can replicate their advantages in the PC field on the mobile Internet. Analysys International believes that in terms of interoperability with other mobile IMs, Mobile QQ and Mobile MSN are not doing well enough; in terms of extended functions, Mobile QQ has not developed any related businesses in online customer service, information download, information services, online games, etc., while Mobile MSN only supports the most basic IM functions, and does not support message mailboxes, group messaging, and mobile chat rooms; in terms of supported media, Mobile QQ has begun to support multimedia formats such as voice, pictures, and videos, while Mobile MSNZE only supports basic formats such as text and simple emoticons. In addition, in terms of industrial chain cooperation, the relatively closed nature of Mobile QQ and Mobile MSN also restricts the entry of third-party content providers.

Due to the conservative strategy of leading Internet IM vendors in the mobile market, mobile multimedia platforms such as PICA, which are latecomers, have gained a breathing space and have grown rapidly. Data shows that PICA, which only started providing services in January this year, currently has more than 3 million users and its services support more than 500 mobile terminals.

According to Liang Hui, CEO of Palm Unlimited, PICA not only supports basic communication functions such as status display, message mailbox, group messaging, mobile chat room, etc., but also supports extended services such as online customer service, group chat, information download, information service, online games, etc. PICA also supports a wide range of media formats, including text, voice, pictures, emoticons, and video; in addition, PICA has introduced a variety of web2.0 elements to support interactive behaviors between users.

On May 30, the PICA-based mobile multimedia blog, PICA-CAST, was launched, along with its mobile talent show and dating function, PICA-SHOW. Users can upload multimedia blogs including voice, pictures and text via wireless Internet access on their mobile phones, and interact through friend lists, rather than through MMS, which is currently used by most mobile blogs.

Analysys International believes that as blog application terminals extend from PCs to mobile phones, mobile blogs will migrate to mobile comprehensive service clients that combine other applications, and generate more applications and newer business models. Although the current operator networks cannot support the upload and download of large-capacity attachments, the commercial use of 3G networks will change this situation.