Chris de Wolfe, the founder of MySpace, said in an interview with the BBC that the next great frontier for social networking sites is the use of such sites on mobile phones. De Wolfe warned that Facebook, the current reigning king of social networking sites, faces a loss of this title if it does not update its functionality with regards to mobile phones. One should not underestimate the power of mobile phone technology with regards to social networking sites. MySpace reports that people who access their site via mobile phones jumped 400% from last year. Now, 25% of all MySpace users access MySpace via their mobile phones. However, this is just the beginning. Jupiter Research predicts by 2012 there will be 600 million people who will access such sites via their mobile phones.1 Currently, there are 20 million people who access MySpace via mobile phones.

This exponential growth has an enormous potential for an increase in MySpace advertising. It is difficult to predict precisely how advertising for such sites would change but when we consider the differences in the format of the PC with the format of the mobile phone, it is undeniable that there will be differences in the format of the ads produced. For example, mobile phone advertising will be able to generate revenue more effectively through SMS advertising schemes compared with the normal PC format. Thus, it is clear that with a change in the format of how these sites are used comes a change in how these companies raise their revenue. MySpace will now have to update its Hypertarget technology. Hypertarget is basically technology which allows companies to target their advertising to particular users. That way certain types of people can be matched up to certain companies who are trying to sell a particular product.

Crucial to the success of launching mobile phone technology on social networking sites are partnerships with mobile phone companies. MySpace recently announced that they will build applications for Nokia phones. That means users can upload myspace layouts from Symbian system. This symbiotic relationship would be beneficial to phone companies and social networking sites alike.

A change in advertising is only one aspect which needs to be considered in launching MySpace onto mobile phones. Another critical aspect under consideration are emerging markets such as China and India, which have an enormous mobile phone user base. De Wolfe predicts that China in particular, is a rich breeding ground for social networking sites to go mobile as there is a social atmosphere of online gaming and online networking. Furthermore, such countries have a booming youth population which could significantly increase the numbers of people who use MySpace via mobile phones. The emergence of mobile internet technology has truly opened the door to change how social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook generate their revenue. Given the potential of social mobile technology it cannot be doubted that a company which can capitalize on this opportunity will become the new reigning king of online social networking.