Mobile social service attracts users with free SMS — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Bringing Japanese business model to UK} Mobile social service attracts users with free SMS

Ad-supported Mobikade offers free games.

11 Aug 2007 at 05:40 GMT Timo Poropudas

Mobikade – a successful ad-funded mobile social networking service from Japan, today announced the release of its free SMS feature to be made available from 10 Aug 2007.

Mobikade launched in the UK by Excite Japan Co., Ltd (Excite Japan), in conjunction with Global Network Solutions Europe Ltd (GNS Europe), the European business base for Japanese Sogo Shosha ITOCHU Corporation.

Mobikade users can now send free SMS messages to any mobile in the UK from the Mobikade website or WAP site. This offer is available to the first 10,000 users who register on Mobikade. To be able to send a free SMS message, users need to accumulate Mobikade points. Points can be earned by using various features on the Mobikade WAP site.

GNS Europe says in its press release that this service will also be integrated into leading universities' student union web sites in the near future.

Yuki Wada, VP, international business at Excite Japan, says, “The Japanese Mobile ad funded market in FY2006 amounted to £156 million - a 35% increase compared to FY2005.

In this market, ad-funded mobile social networking services have been hugely successful.

One of the sites has achieved, in 12 months: over 5 million users, 10 billion monthly page views and £12 million revenue, mainly by advertisements. Mobikade is consistent with this service model, deployed with a UK flavour”.

Mobikade provides free personal mobile space to keep track of what’s new in your life, by posting updates on “What’s up now?” By typing in a few words you and your friends can keep track of where you are and what you are doing. Users can also download games; mainly puzzle games such as Sudoku for free.