With blinko's worldwide launch, the company aims to become one of the top three brands in at least 10 countries.
Mauro Del Rio, chairman and founder of Buongiorno, commented: “The social network is the most important development in digital media of the past three years. It’s here to stay. Up to now, it has only been available on the fixed internet, but clearly it is even more at home in the mobile phone context. At the heart of social networking is the desire to share interesting things with people we are close to, and interesting things don’t tend to happen in front of a computer screen, but when we’re out and about with our mobile phones. That is why Buongiorno wants to lead the uptake of mobile social networking”, said Del Rio.
Mobile social networking is no longer being used just by a few early adopters; it is fast becoming a mass phenomenon, with increasingly interesting growth trends, said Buongiorno.
A study conducted by Informa, which analysed and forecast the growth of social networking for 2007-2012, concluded it was a constantly evolving trend: 55 million people registered with online communities in 2007 and projections, based on a current annual average growth trend of 50%, estimate there will be 428 million users by 2012.
Informa also provided three possible scenarios for mobile user numbers: a conservative estimate of 428 million users, a medium- evel estimate of 562 million, and a high estimate of 770 million users. This means that approximately one mobile user out of five could belong to a mobile social network within just four years.
According to a white paper written by Informa exclusively for Buongiorno, the most successful mobile social network players long term will be the pure play companies which embrace the communication and functionality of the mobile device to deliver four key needs: communication, location, immediacy and relevance.