Moblogging' a new tool for social networking

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Mumbai, May 27 (UNI) Social networking on internet or commonly used name among bloggers community '' Orkuting'' has a new competitor called 'Moblogging'.

Moblogging' is blogging on mobile. This phenomenon is rapidly gaining acceptance among mobile users which allows the user to add and update their weblog on the go. Anytime anywhere blogging is the underlying mantra for it.

Moblogging' is the brand new addition to the service providers gamut of value added service (VAS). Though still in its infancy in India, blogging on mobile is expected to catch up with the rapidly growing bloggers community in the country.

Globally there are 200 million bloggers. Industry estimates put 100,000 as the figure for India. And the number is growing.

The mobile handset giant Nokia has come up with a new application Nokia M-blog that allows users to post pictures directly to the M-blog and invite friends to view directly from the multimedia device. This application is specially optimized for the Nokia N-series users.

Reliance Communications in partnership with IMImobile introduced mobile blogging service ''Mblog'' for its subscribers recently.

The charges are at Rs 5 per MMS and Rs 3 per SMS blog. The subscribers will be able to exchange images, videos and messages with anyone around the world.

According to head-Mobile Business, MSN India, Senthil Kumar Sundaram 'Mobile blogging is truly blogging on the move. It is more instantaneous and more event driven than PC blogging.'' With more than 45 per cent of new handsets being GPRS capable and sale of camera phones increasing by 25 per cent every quarter, mobile blogging holds a very good promise for the VAS players. Some handset vendors and operators have understood its future potential and have introduced moblogging service.

However, in India, blogging still has a lot of ground to cover in terms of becoming popular on the Internet. Senthil says, ''In India, PC based blogging itself has to attain critical mass, with only one million users at present.'' Moreover, the ratio is reverse with the number of mobile users more than the Internet users. Hence, the market has an attitude of cautious optimism as it is a very nascent market and its popularity depends on how much on top of the mind it is for the users.

Despite the initial inhibitions, the Indian mobile VAS market is upbeat about moblogging. According to VP, India Operations, Webaroo, Chirag Jain 'Mobile blogging is still in its infancy. However, the potential is huge especially in countries like India where a large part of the user population will be able to experience this using mobile devices.'' There are more than 200 million mobile subscribers in India, and mobile companies and service providers have discovered moblogging as the new technology to grab the users attention.

Co-founder and director of Coruscant Tec, Probir Roy says, ''We had developed the first blog by the name of Air Blog in 2005 but there was not much response to it at that time. Now, the interest is rising and the market has a mindset of cautious optimism.'' Another form of moblogging creating a buzz is corporate blogging.

Analysts suggest that mobile blogs will become an important source of feedback as enterprises try to engage customer in all stages.

Once the benefits of costs and implications become clearer and handsets become affordable, corporate blogging is bound to rise to unprecedented heights.

UNI

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