The Birth of User-Generated Content and Social Communities
We are witnessing a silent revolution: the birth of user-generated content and
social communities. Initially we might have considered it just a minor trend
offering highly creative (or bored) people some way to express themselves.
Later, as we began to see and hear more signs of its presence we may have
started to participate ourselves, not really knowing where all this would lead.
Suddenly we look around and the world has changed. Content is not what it
used to be!
User-Generated Content (UGC) is taking the place of “professional” content
in much of our daily routine. From product reviews to funny videos, from
reference encyclopedias to special events footage we are turning to content
created and published on the Web by our peers. This new world feeds on the
cooperative effort of millions of talented people who contribute their
knowledge, creativity and time for us to read, watch, listen and enjoy.
In addition to watching the world on YouTube and searching for reference
information on Wikipedia, some of us have begun gathering around virtual
“campfires” or Social Communities. Sites like MySpace and Blogger are
where you go to meet your friends, watch their pictures and videos and chat.
One of the most common forms of UGC is a “blog”, standing for “Web log”.
Used by teens and company CEOs alike, a blog is a simple and immediate
tool allowing people to publish their thoughts and experiences, often
accompanied by pictures, for the entire world to see.
The revolution is young, but User-Generated Content and Social
Communities sites have managed to conquer cyberspace. Currently half of
today’s 10 most-visited Web sites are UGC-based: YouTube, MySpace,
Orkut, Wikipedia, Facebook.
A Camera with You Wherever You Go
Since the early days of MMS, one of major barriers for adoption of mobile
multimedia was the limited availability of camera phones, but this is no longer
the case. Camera-enabled phones are the vast majority of new handsets
sales. According to iSuppli Corp., since 2005 shipments of sensors for
camera phones have outnumbered shipments of image sensors for all other
applications combined — including standalone digital cameras.
Recent years have also seen an immense improvement in the quality of the
imaging capability in handsets, in particular sensor resolution, quality of the
camera optics and storage memory. It’s common for medium-range handsets
to feature at least two-megapixel cameras, to record DVD-quality video and
be capable of storing several gigabytes of media. This is more than enough
for all but the most demanding applications.
The remaining challenge is: how do I share this multimedia with my friends?
Social Communities Go Mobile
In addition to the great improvement in multimedia capabilities, current
handsets are more connected than they have ever been. Whether over 2.5G
or 3G, the vast majority of users in advanced markets have the capability to
browse the “mobile Web” better than ever before as well as share high-quality
media via MMS or mobile email quickly and reliably.
It took years of slow and sometimes painful changes, huge investment in
mobile data infrastructures, gradual improvements in the penetration and
capabilities of handsets but we may finally have reached a “tipping point” for
mobile multimedia services. Mobile operators, content providers and Web
developers alike are realizing this, and they are leveraging these capabilities
to offer a growing variety of rich mobile content and services.
In the field of mobile UGC and Social Communities we can find the following
examples:
In addition to the great improvement in multimedia capabilities, current
handsets are more connected than they have ever been. Whether over 2.5G
or 3G, the vast majority of users in advanced markets have the capability to
browse the “mobile Web” better than ever before as well as share high-quality
media via MMS or mobile email quickly and reliably.
It took years of slow and sometimes painful changes, huge investment in
mobile data infrastructures, gradual improvements in the penetration and
capabilities of handsets but we may finally have reached a “tipping point” for
mobile multimedia services. Mobile operators, content providers and Web
developers alike are realizing this, and they are leveraging these capabilities
to offer a growing variety of rich mobile content and services.
In the field of mobile UGC and Social Communities we can find the following
examples:
- SeeMeTv: Launched in 2005 by H3G UK, this YouTube-like UGC service
allows H3G’s users to use their handset camera and MMS capabilities to
upload cool and funny videos to the mobile portal. Uploaded media can
then be browsed and downloaded by other users as premium content.
Since launch, more than 100,000 media items have been uploaded,
resulting in over 12 million paid downloads. - Blogger.com: One of the earliest “blogging” services, Blogger.com is
now part of the Google family. If “blog” stands for “Web log” then
Blogger.com is also an “mblog” or “mobile Web log” since it allows users
to publish text and pictures directly from their mobile device. Posting text
and media can be done by MMS or email, directly from the mobile device.
Blogger also features a mobile version of the site, allowing users to
browse blogs while on the move. - MOKO: Launched in 2005 in H3G Australia as Kink Kommunity, this
service was and still is a mobile-only social community. MOKO (for
MObile KOmmunity) has since reached H3G UK and is now launching in
the US market as well. MOKO users start a “chat room” by uploading a
picture or video via MMS to a short code. The chat rooms can be browsed
on mobile devices at http://www.moko.mobi. In order to be part of the
community MOKO members pay a monthly fee of GBP 1.5 in H3G UK or
3 US$ if in H3G AU. There are 50’000 paying MOKO users in H3G UK alone.
The Mobile Upload Dilemma: Which Approach?
Many more UGC services and social communities are out there, each with its
own approach to publishing. Rabble, a US “location-based social networking”
service uses a custom application that is available for major US handsets.
Mobile upload to Flickr, the photo blogging site now owned by Yahoo, has
been possible through an embedded application available on selected handsets. Mobile posting to YouTube is possible by sending an MMS or
email to your personal account’s email address.
In general, the upload and sharing approach of most communities falls into
the following two categories:
- Custom Handset Applications: The choice of services like Rabble or
ShoZu, these applications try to maintain the service look and feel in the
handset and often bypass the operators by using only direct data
connection to the service site. The communication costs depend on the
size of the media and the user’s data plan. The main challenge of this
approach is the need to develop and install the custom applications for an
ever-growing number of handsets. Furthermore, this approach does not
lend itself to smaller services and communities, which may not have the
critical mass to justify a custom application. - Direct Upload via MMS: SeeMeTV, MOKO and others chose to skip the
development of mobile application altogether and take advantage of the
native handset capabilities: mobile browser to browse, MMS and SMS to
post and chat. Want to post a new picture and text to your mblog? Just
send an MMS to the service short code or email address. Want to chat
with your friends? Use either MMS or SMS. Service costs are according
to standard SMS and MMS fees.
Determining the Business Model
We have seen several examples of services. Some, like MOKO and
SeeMeTV, have a more direct business model, as they work in cooperation
with selected mobile operators, require a monthly subscription fee and/or
enjoy revenue sharing from the MMS or SMS used to communicate with the
service. Others, like YouTube and Blogger.com, work independently from the
operators, offering an indirect/direct business case as they use operators as
“bit pipes” for posting or mobile Internet.
While the jury is still out on the winning business model, we begin to see that
many services favor native applications such as MMS and SMS for mobile
posting. Modern handsets can send 300 Kbyte messages, and that limit is
growing as European operators begin to allow up to 600 Kbytes and US
operators already offer up to 1 Megabyte messages. That is more than
enough for high-quality pictures as well as high-quality video over a minute in
length.
Twitter, a leading mobile blog, chose to allow posting by Web or SMS only,
therefore restricting the direct upload of pictures from mobile. In one of the
blogs a user posted: “If Twitter supported MMS you would so be getting a
picture of a guy with a monkey on a motorcycle”. But it doesn’t, so you’re
not…
Action Items for Mobile Operators and Social Communities
It is in the interest of mobile operators to expose their users to mobile UGC
and mobile social communities and help them find new and exciting ways to
stay in touch with their preferred communities and contribute their content
from wherever they are. They already have invested in the data enablers and
infrastructures – now it’s time to bear the fruits by embracing such traffic-generating services.
It is in the interest of UGC sites and social communities to broaden the
access to their services by allowing the largest possible number of users to
post and communicate simply and directly while on the go by using standard
messaging tools such as MMS and SMS.
Service Integration Made Simple
As mobile UGC and social communities gain popularity, network operators
strive to make access while on the go as easy as using SMS.
Traditionally, the integration of Application-To-Person (A2P) services into a
mobile network was not an easy feat. Applications have to be able to send
and receive messages through the network’s SMS & MMS delivery engines
as well as integrate with the billing and prepaid systems. Once applications
have been deployed, their use of network resources has to be monitored and
managed, guaranteeing proper quality of service for all P2P and A2P
services alike.
These time-consuming tasks have raised the complexity of new service
integration to the point that mobile operators now ask themselves with each
additional service: “Is this worth the integration effort?”
The Comverse Messaging Gateway is designed to break this complexity
barrier and act as a single point of network integration, management and
control for all third-party messaging sources and applications. New services
added simply through open HTTP interfaces immediately gain access to the
network’s messaging, management and billing resources – increasing speed
and ease of deployment, and profitability of new services.
In conclusion: As users seek mobile access to an ever-growing number of
UGC sources and social communities, the Comverse Messaging Gateway
can allow unprecedented network openness while keeping integration and management complexity under control.
Article written by Dror Bin, (pictured) General Manager, Comverse Messaging source