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August 24, 2007

MocoSpace Has Strong Growth; Race To Be MySpace For Mobile

Michael Arrington

42 comments »

Forget watching the big social networks slug it out for market share. People want to take their social networks with them when they step away from the computer. That means applications have to be mobile friendly.

Most of the big networks have mobile versions of their site, with stripped down functionality. Facebook has, hands down, the best mobile application if you happen to own an iPhone. But for the most part, competition in the desktop arena has limited the amount of attention any of the big networks are giving to the mobile world.

That might just give some runway to new startups focused solely on mobile. We recently covered ZYB, a Danish startup that just launched a mobile social network on the back of it’s mobile address book backup service. The specifics of their service largely limit them to Europe, where users have more freedom to add applications to their mobile devices.

In the U.S., one of the stronger contenders is MocoSpace, a Boston based startup that launched a mobile-only social network last year (see coverage at MobileCrunch from April 2006).

The service is very easy to use from a mobile phone. Registration is dead simple - it took about 20 seconds on my iPhone earlier today. Right away MocoSpace starts to suggest possible friends based on proximity, online status or random selections. You can then add photos and video from your phone (or upload them from a desktop/laptop computer), chat with friends, and create a stripped down “blog” which is similar to Twitter in functionality.

MocoSpace says they are serving close to 500 million monthly page views - which is pretty impressive since “almost all” of those page views are from mobile devices. They are also approaching 1 million registered users, and 6,000 new users sign up daily.

MocoSpace raised a $3 million in a Series A financing in January 2007. Investors included General Catalyst, Pilot Group and Michael Deering. The company has 15 employees (half in Boston, half in Israel).

If you are a startup targeting the mobile social networking space, we want to hear from you.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 3:58 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. mir

    August 24th, 2007 at 5:45 am

    Wow that’s cool. I have the habit of browsing the internet with my pearl. But most of the time even mobile based service sucks. Always a thin client becomes more intuitive like yahoo go or gmail. Tksnks for sharing this site. Am commenting this blog from pearl.

    ~ MIR
    http://www.mailsiread.com

  2. Josh Petersen

    August 24th, 2007 at 6:36 am

    Did anyone bother to look into that pageview claim of 500 Million PVs a month? That would make it a very popular website, but the claim doesn’t seem supported by Alexa, Compete, or ComScore.

  3. Richard Corsale

    August 24th, 2007 at 6:37 am

    there is no reason to have a separate social network. The users investment in building and customizing there spaces and they are established. Just like there hotmail address. I mean whats needed now is for news corp to pony up a few Shekels and get a decent interface together.

    To hold users over until I finish my super secret.. wait for it … “meta social network aggregation and image proxy translation service” Combining several services into one and finally focusing on one slick interface merging mySpace and facebook networks…MUAHAHAHA yeasss

    Interface for the various mobile devices will be a seamless!! I will then throughly test it from the beach in Nassau.

    hua what?
    –Richard Corsale

  4. Ian

    August 24th, 2007 at 6:57 am

    please check out http://www.mokokommunity.com thanks.

  5. Vijay Veerachandran

    August 24th, 2007 at 7:09 am

    Amazing application. Only I wish joining is this simpler. This one is a winner. Especially the chat room. I am already lovin it.

    What is interesting?

    Easy joining process
    Familiar interface ( recall chat rooms)
    No client or installation
    There is some one in the chat room rather than bots

    Check Points?

    s!@# and P#@$ words
    No filter
    When bots are in real people are out

  6. Mel

    August 24th, 2007 at 8:23 am

    Great article - I agree with Vijay - the signup is a breeze. I have a blackberry with a corporate account on it, so I’m not into downloading ANYTHING, for security reasons. Re: Josh’s comment on pageviews - I don’t think those sites are measuring mobile web access, so I don’t think it’s that unreasonable. And re: Richard, there are already about a dozen profile/network aggregators out there. The value-add of them seems to be minimal. People LIKE boundaries. They like feeling like they are a part of something that others aren’t a part of. It gives them identity, belonging, in my sociological opinion….

  7. 1.0

    August 24th, 2007 at 8:27 am

    I already have a social network for my phone. It’s called an address book. Revolutionary, I know.

  8. Joe

    August 24th, 2007 at 8:47 am

    Wow! What’s the link to that network? That address book one? That sounds awesome! So you can like post pictures and blog entries on it? And videos, too? What other fantastic social networking features does that list of names, phone numbers, emails, and addresses give you? I’d really love to try it!

    In all seriousness, though, while the idea of a more mobilized social network is a great idea, I feel like it would be better to simply clean up the existing networks for mobile consumption, like Richard pointed out. People become invested in the social networks that they belong to. Nobody wants to create a whole new one just for when you’re on your cell phone. That means adding your friends again (assuming you can convince all of them to also join a new network), or adding new people that you’ve never met, which is fine if that’s what you’re using networking sites for.

    For me, personally, I use my Facebook and Myspace to keep in touch with people I already know, and occasionally to meet new people by way of the people I already know. So to join a new network that I don’t know anyone one is pointless. The iPhone Facebook app is fantastic. It would be great if Myspace would come up with a similar solution.

  9. Tim

    August 24th, 2007 at 8:52 am

    Can anyone tell me a good reason why all these social networks are called (insert letter or term here)space.com? And I mean a reason beyond some fantasy of instant recognition because of the word “space”.

    Kinda lame:
    MySpace (first one - that is fine - actually makes sense)
    A-space (dumb)
    MocoSpace (What the hell is a moco?)
    CarSpace (OK)
    AdultSpace (sure)
    Genesis-Space (huh?)
    HobbySpace (starting to get old)
    BlogginSpace (ugh)
    BlackBusinessSpace (yawn)

    Enough! Lets try to be a bit more creative. =^)

    Whats next, maybe CrunchSpace? — Holy Crap — Arrington owns CrunchSpace - no joke - I just checked.

    Wow, I can’t wait!!! (yawn)

    Tim McCormack
    iRent2u.com - the Online Rental Marketplace

  10. Ben

    August 24th, 2007 at 9:37 am

    Hi guys,

    Ben, Founder & CEO of Mobile Social Networking product, bluepulse.com.

    The traction communities like Mocospace are seeing in the mobile space are real. Bluepulse has done almost 3million off-deck downloads in the last 8 months of having a beta out.

    It’s about “Mobile Social Networking” not “Social Networks on Mobile”…. there is a big difference in this. If anyone wants me to elaborate sometime, let me know. :-)

    Cheers, Ben.

  11. Ray Renteria

    August 24th, 2007 at 10:05 am

    I can’t help but laugh at the name of the space–mostly because of my familiarity with the Spanish language. Moco is spanish for “booger,” as in “Nose Gobblin,” as in “Bats in the Cave.” Various Ren and Stimpy cartoons come to mind.

    Still, biz is biz. If I were a Product Marketer for MocoSpace, I’d keep this in mind and remember the fate of the Chevrolet Nova (Nova means, “Doesn’t Run.”)

    Also, I believe there’s something to be said about letting social networks spill out into the real world. I believe that the intersection of something like MocoSpace with Geospatial technologies makes for an interesting marketing potential–in addition to networking.

    Here’s the deal, everybody on the space has taken the time to spill their guts about who they are, what they like, and what kinds of friends they have and who they are, what they like, and so on, and so on. Now combine that incredibly valuable information with GPS. I’m driving along and I’m informed (assertively, not passively) that somebody in my network who studies computer vision lives right around the corner. Would I like to contact him? Or how about potential business contacts: My day job is X and on my drive to work every day I pass 250 potential prospects and I don’t even know it.

    Yes, I think the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.

    Thumbs up. Now fix the name before it undermines the growth of your market. :)

    –Ray Renteria

  12. TXT Circle

    August 24th, 2007 at 10:29 am

    I have serious doubts about the “nearly 1 million registered users”. I like to think that I’m on top of developments around the mobile space and I’ve never even heard of these guys.

    That being said, it seems like a neat idea. I’ve just signed up.

  13. John Scrofano

    August 24th, 2007 at 10:38 am

    Ben is right that there is a difference between “mobile social networks” and “social networks on mobile.” MocoSpace is a mobile social network. When Arrington says, “That might just give some runway to new startups focused solely on mobile,” it seems like he is tipping his hat to a niche of mobile social networks that is viable, even successful.

    I have been tooling around with MocoSpace for a few months. Dare I be controversial, but the demographic on MocoSpace (analogous to Danah Boyd’s article on class differences of MySpace and Facebook) appears to be a demographic that has limited access to the internet and to web based social networks in general. Why wouldn’t this under served market want an accessible social network?

    However, I find it very hard to believe that mobile social networks will ever be as successful as social networks on mobile. MySpace, Facebook, and the third party companies that extend these social networks to the mobile in a seamless fashion will be the biggest winners. All of us mobile companies are feverishly working to make this happen. MocoSpace is a different value proposition, that’s all.

    Also, “moco,” I believe as in the rest of the mobile industry is short for “MObile COntent.”

  14. Derrick

    August 24th, 2007 at 10:44 am

    It may be user friendly for mobile phone users. But is it GPRS-data-charges-friendly for those phone users that don’t have wifi?

  15. Diego

    August 24th, 2007 at 10:47 am

    please check out NoNews.com. It’s a different twist in the same market. Just launched in early beta. Comes with a mobile version too at m.nonews.com.

    The application is pretty simple, it’s a way to share all that good content that you capture everyday with your phone and keep up with friends. If you’re like me you like to take pics of pretty girls or videos of funny scenes that you happen to witness during the day and send them to your friends over mms. This application helps you do just that.

    Once you’re registered you’ll have 4 channels. One public channel for things that you want to share with everybody and 3 private channel for sharing more sensitive content. The 3 private channels are named after the 3 relationships that (mostly) everybody have: business, friends & family.

    You get to upload to the site from … well the website of course or directly from the cellphone just by sending your pics, video, text and any conbination in an mms to pub@nonews.mobi (Public channel), biz@nonews.mobi (Business channel), bud@nonews.mobi (friends channel), fam@nonews.mobi (family channel).

    Everybody that subscribes and wants to be notified (only friends can) will get an sms whenever you upload something.
    The site is also viewable from wap browsers at m.nonews.mobi.

    I am one of the developers, sorry for the shameless plug

  16. Craig

    August 24th, 2007 at 10:49 am

    Tim don’t playa hate

    ‘Space’ is recognizable to end users as a community product or service. Just like i represents an Apple product or m can represent a mobile serivce. I would rather my site be recognized and remembered than be creative. Think about alll the ’sters’, napster, jamster, jobster. Think about all the ‘my’ websites mythis, mythat. All the infrastructure service companies use blox, box, cube, open.

    Its no fantasy Timmy boy… If you saw a site called Phonespace.com(for example) you would know it was a community for mobile phones. If you saw PhonyBalony.com(for example), you wouldnt know anything about it.

  17. Craig

    August 24th, 2007 at 10:51 am

    And FYI… Many workplaces now block Myspace and Facebook….thus Mocospace is still available.

  18. Dominic

    August 24th, 2007 at 11:01 am

    I’m just wondering if there are many startups or transition companies out there that are in business for anything other than Face Book and/or MySpace.
    This is getting like reading the same classfied ads everyday, day after day after day.

  19. Rajesh Shakya

    August 24th, 2007 at 11:18 am

    That’s cool. Mobile space is next level of social networking. Pioneers mostly win , at least for the first run. Congratulations guys.

    Rajesh Shakya
    http://www.rajeshshakya.com
    Helping technopreneurs to excel and lead their life!

  20. Rolando

    August 24th, 2007 at 11:37 am

    I have this phone and I very glad with him, becouse it have exel……

  21. Tim

    August 24th, 2007 at 12:11 pm

    http://www.zoovision.com

    This site has mobile social networking functionality integrated into it, so the basis is to provide a means for like minded individuals to interact with one another about the content that originally attracted the user in the first place.

  22. Mikew

    August 24th, 2007 at 12:44 pm

    Ray - the Chevy “Nova” example you give is in fact an urban legend.

    Snopes.com has the full story:
    http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

  23. David

    August 24th, 2007 at 12:49 pm

    Please stop feeding me more social networks! I’m full.

    I agree with 1.0 that my real social network is in my phones address book and if someone integrated it with some nice services out there, I might try it. Until then a “face” and a “space” is more than enough of an online precense for me.

  24. Diego

    August 24th, 2007 at 1:25 pm

    Dominic - yes they are many, look at zoovision or nonews.com. The problem is twofold
    1) social site have been “THE” hot topic for the past 4 years.
    2) small sites usually go under the radar

    David - Sorry but you’ll see a lot more of them coming up for the next 4 years but don’t worry they are getting better.

  25. Brian

    August 24th, 2007 at 1:37 pm

    Diego – I think the http://www.nonews.com project has potential… We are missing some key features right now. But the road map looks promising.

  26. Ringll

    August 24th, 2007 at 2:09 pm

    This is further proof that Mobile Social Networking is gaining traction and flourishing. Ringll (http://www.ringll.com) also targets the Mobile Social Networking space and is specifically focussed on short voice messages e.g. jokes, live reporting, event co-ordination. You can think of it like Twitter but for voice messages.

  27. Abby

    August 24th, 2007 at 3:55 pm

    Mocospace? A space for boogers?
    The name is not appealing at all..

  28. christ

    August 24th, 2007 at 5:27 pm

    This looks promising although it will be hard to avoid being crushed by the big networks.

    As for bluepulse, talk about lack of direction and jumping on the buzz bandwagon. I thought those guys were a widget platform (see earlier techcrunch) and now suddenly it’s a social network or is this just another way to extort funding after failing at the widget game ?

  29. patrick

    August 24th, 2007 at 6:20 pm

    @Abby
    Yeah, One thing entrepreneurs need to learn before they start companies that have world reach is the fact that they must research names, and what they quite possibly could mean in other languages.

    Moco = snot in Mexican Spanish.

  30. Adam

    August 25th, 2007 at 8:23 am

    I run a mobile social network called Zannel.

    Like other services mentioned here, we’ve witnessed a strong demand for mobile social networking, having served millions of user-gen videos and pics since we launched and signing-up thousands of new users per day.

    We’ve witnessed a number of interesting mobile trends:

    1. Media is the message - mobile pics/videos becoming the way people tell each other what they’re doing. On our service, pics viewed 2x to videos.

    2. Real time - people want to show/see what they’re friends are doing now, not later on a computer. Therefore, mobile alerts and “blogview” of your mobile media becoming an important way users communicate with each other.

    3. Evening highest activity level - makes sense since people away from computers and out on the town.

    4. Urban demo early adopters - were early adopters of mobile media (ringtones, graphics) now mobile social networking.

    5. Events gone mobile - again, no computer available, and mobile allows people to keep in touch and see multiple views/perspectives of event (300 videos of band you just saw playing).

    We’ve launched new version of service this week and welcome your feedback.

  31. Isaac Babbs

    August 25th, 2007 at 5:42 pm

    Check out http://www.tapatap.com We are a mobile social contest community where users play and create photo contest on their mobile phone for fun and prizes. We also provide most of the baseline social network features too.

    We partner with pure social networks. We think think that some of the winners on the phone will be coming from the web and others will be coming from the phone for social networks.

    Check us out and let us know what you think.

    Isaac Babbs, CEO and Founder
    Tapatap, Inc

    ibabbs@tapatap.com

  32. Fine Banana

    August 26th, 2007 at 7:46 pm

    Have you guys heard about VelvetPuffin (www.velvetpuffin.com)? I believe it’s been featured on TC as well.

  33. Bee

    August 27th, 2007 at 12:04 pm

    Look at http://www.vazion.com

  34. Patrick

    August 28th, 2007 at 1:46 am

    MobiLuck, originally known for its bluetooth messaging software for mobiles, has now developed a mobile proximity-based social networking service. People use the service like a radar to discover people and places in order of distance away from them, and then chat with and meet them. They can also keep in touch with their IM contacts on the move. The service is free and can be accessed via wap.mobiluck.com from your mobile.

    Patrick
    Marketing Director, MobiLuck

  35. Arnold

    August 28th, 2007 at 9:10 pm

    This is a decent mobile social network, free chat, and now updating it with mobile video sharing and clips as well as a whole host of features. Might be interesting to check out or include.

    Arni

  36. David

    August 29th, 2007 at 3:16 pm

    htpp://www.mocospace.com/dafydd.gwilym

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