With around 2-3 million mobile subscribers connected to GPRS, operators and content providers are looking to create communities to engage them, and possibly get them to spend. Mobile2win, Indiagames and Onmobile are in talks with Airtel and Reliance to launch theme based communities across operators. Indiagames has planned -€œtadkalive-€ for gamers and already has Airtel on board. Others, like Mobile2win, have planned dating and chat sites. An eBay-like mobile auction portal may also be in the works. [Source: The Economic Times]
Community sites tap a need for involvement - that you feel that you lose out by not being a part of them. Mobile communities take that concept off the net, add the convenience and temptation of “anytime, anywhere”, and monetize the community via GPRS or SMS. For an understanding of how addictive this concept can be, read Narendra Rocherolle’s guest article at GigaOm. Of course, there are usability issues with mobile phone messaging, but predictive text solves part of that problem. Websites too need to be designed differently for mobile phones, as Usability guru Jakob Nielson pointed out in a comment at PaidContent.