Frederick Ghahramani co-founded airG in
2000. Today the mobile social networking community has
20 million users. eMarketer spoke with him about what is
driving growth and what it means for marketers.
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eMarketer: What does this growth say about
consumer attitudes to the mobile channel?
Frederick Ghahramani: It says that mobile-only
social communities are an undisputed consumer
phenomenon.
It is the mass market consumer that is driving the
use of mobile content. When the right services are
marketed correctly to a mass audience and can bring them
together in one place on their mobile phone to chat,
share photos and videos, search and check profiles,
consumers will be engaged on their mobile phones—some
for more than an hour each day.
eMarketer: How should marketers react to this
growth? What should they do?
Mr. Ghahramani: With billions of advertising
impressions generated per month there is a tremendous
inventory available to marketers and advertisers to
reach their target customers on their mobile phones.
eMarketer: What are user demographics like?
Mr. Ghahramani: The majority of customers
spend more than an hour a day in the community. Nearly
60% don’t own a PC. Six in 10 have at least a high
school education. The average annual income is $41,000,
and the five most popular handsets used to access airG all retail for less than $100 with a service contract.
The market is in a frenzy over new devices like the
iPhone, but the reality is that the mass market consumer
is using a handset that costs $100 or less to access
mobile services.
eMarketer: How big do you think mobile social
networking will get?
Mr. Ghahramani: According to Juniper Research, the number of users
of mobile chat and dating services is expected to rise
from just over 40 million in 2007 to 260 million in
2012, with revenues expected to exceed $1 billion in
2010.
For more on mobile social networks, click here.
The eMarketer Mobile Messaging report will be
published in November 2007. Please click
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released.