Thank you for your comments. I agree, the “me too” model will not work here. Providing LBS services is more than opening a SN site and paying for hosting – it’s an expensive business (see value chain part-2). Therefore migrating regular web 2.0 strategies to the mobile world is problematic. The key here is in the collective value of the network. I’ll address this issue and a few ideas on my next post (coming Saturday).

I am aware of the value that these applications bring to customers, specially the younger crowd. However, I don’t think anyone will be willing to pay for this type of service.

I’ve heard many times that this may be paid for by mobile advertisement. I still believe this kind of advertisement is intrusive and people do not want advertisement in their personal device.

I have given this topic a lot of thought and I can’t figure out where else to generate significant revenue. The “fremium model” might work for some, although for social networking services I hardly see someone paying a monthly fee, although hopefully I’m wrong. Claudio, I would love to hear you comment in more depth about this topic.

What will determine whether these new entrants survive is their business model. Where will the cash come from? How will they make money? Basically, like you put it, what is the revenue model?

We have seen with social networking (SN); people use hosted platform or build their own to get into the SN business with no clear business model. They all want and hope to be the next facebook. Thing is you cannot put a site out there and hope to attact millions of users and that someday it will make money through advertizing or that someone will buy it the company. Skype had a good business model do you? It is time to start thinking of something valuable that customers will be willing to pay for. Business is about willing seller have goods or services in a market of willing buyers. Can you use your own LBS service and what problem does it solve or what value do you derive from it? Think!