Forecast: 140M mobile social networking users by 2013

More than 140 million consumers will embrace mobile social networking by 2013 according to a forecast released by market analysis firm ABI Research, which anticipates subscription revenues in excess of $410 million. ABI expects mobile social networking subscriber growth to climb modestly over the next three or four years before exploding--the firm adds it believes mobile incarnations of social networks will follow the free, browser-based model defined by websites like Facebook and MySpace, which could limit mobile operator data traffic revenues. Mobile content sales and mobile advertising efforts will instead drive revenues, with ABI citing a recent end-user survey reporting that mobile social networkers are likely to consume two or three times as much digital mobile content than their anti-social peers. Still, ABI warns that social networking applications must first capitalize on the unique attributes of the mobile platform and cannot become reliant solely on advertising revenues, at least not initially.  

For more on the ABI forecast:
- read this release

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