— CONTINUE READING THIS POST —
The Archives
Another Location Based Services – Social Networking Business Model – Old meet Web2.0
Sunday, December 28th, 2008— CONTINUE READING THIS POST —
Posted in Blog, Business Models | 19 Comments »
My list of Location Based Social Networking sites
Saturday, December 20th, 2008The general impression I had after putting all of them together in one page, is that many of the LBSN are “me too” applications, and at this point I can’t pinpoint one that present a marketing message with a unique offer, a distinctive value proposition or main differentiators from the others. I included standalone sites, and applications that complement as add-on Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Flicker, YouTube, etc.
The directory is provided as “info only” without recommendations or endorsements. I’ll appreciate though, if you can review the list, and leave your comments.
The page is dated December 20, 2008. It would be interesting to review it in one year time and see if it grew, shrunk or consolidated.
For the list PRESS HERE or press the LBSN Links button in the top menu.
Please leave your comments, and Link/share/quote/ping. For additional posted comments follow this link
Thank you for your support!
Posted in Blog, Location Based Social Networking | 2 Comments »
Location Based Services Value Chain – Part 3 – Business Models for Location Based Social Networking
Monday, December 15th, 2008I’ll assume through this post that you have read the preceding articles (LBS Marketing Concept / Value Chain 1 / Value Chain 2 / Location Based Social Networks 2.5) as many of the keys for further business models discussions reside there.
In my first post I defined the “Location Based Service concept” as the company’s effort to transform geographical positioning information into valuable and relevant data for a customer, to make a profit. The question here is: who is the customer that is willing to pay for that data?
Tim O’Reilly defines in “What is WEB 2.0” Data is the next Intel Inside and he presents a key question: Who owns the data? And I would add, What Data?
In the following Business Model the LBS service provider owns the data. I reviewed many Location Based Social Networking sites and in most cases “some kind” of lack of privacy is the base of their business model. Differently from carrier fee based pushed services (top – down), this model is based on bottom-up. The LBS provider enables a platform for people to interact for free. In this scenario the handset is usually subsidized by the carrier, interested in generating traffic. The free service is now growing in viral mode and at this point the customers should be called by their real function: “data collectors”.

— CONTINUE READING THIS POST —
Posted in Blog, Business Models | 8 Comments »
Location Based Services Value Chain – Part 2.5 – The Case for Location Based Social Networking
Sunday, December 7th, 2008We are witnessing a new evolution in the online world. The “WHO are you” and “WHAT are you doing” is rapidly evolving to “Who are you” “What are you doing” “WHEN are you doing” and “WHERE are you”. We can fairly say that the WWW became the WWWW
The When and Where pose many questions, most of them associated with privacy. For example:
1- How is the location captured: Automatic by the system, Others on demand, You on demand
2- What type of location notification: Descriptive text (i.e. “At gym”, “at Starbucks”), area in a map, zip code, exact address, a point in a map
3- How is the sharing: Reciprocal, one way, only on authorization
4- Location History: Movement patterns, Tracking, Monitoring
5- Location Ownership: Resale and/or disclose of the information
But the same concerns for privacy were raised before we published our family photos and videos to the world. The fact is that the accessibility of technology creates communities and services. The simplification of web page building facilitated the rise of communities like FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIN and others. The commoditization and accessibility to digital cameras, camcorders, and webcams has paved the way to communities like YouTube and Flicker or services like SnapFish. GPS devices became a commodity, and soon GPS in a cellular phone will be as common as a camera. As a matter of fact, you can get your position without a GPS (see Google maps) and Location Based Services can simply be added as a feature to mass social networks like Facebook. Location Based Social Networking is not a question of IF, it’s a question of WHEN and the when is NOW.
— CONTINUE READING THIS POST —
Posted in Blog, Location Based Social Networking | 8 Comments »
Search
Join the LB$ Group in LinkedIN
Contact Me
Let’s meet
Facebook Recommendations
Recent Posts
- So Facebook added Location. What’s next? Location Based Services for marketers 101
- Indoor Navigation: The new Gold rush? Part-2 – Ecosystem and opportunities.
- The Mobile Marketing Revolution and Location Intelligence – Seminar at Versailles
- How location will enable milking more money from Social Networks
- Location Based Services: The new mobile treasure map in Latin America


Recent Comments