Researcher Datamonitor says social networking increasingly provides "ad hoc unified communications for the general population". That's a nice way of looking at everything Web 2.0, I think.

People are choosing to communicate and receive communications through an ever-increasing array of collaborative devices and platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and RSS. Datamonitor's argument suggests consumers are using social networking services to maintain presence across a unified network - and that mobile phones will be the latest and greatest extension of such an effort.

The researcher says added proof came at the end of last week, as Vodafone acquired Danish company ZYB for 31.5m Euros - a firm that has developed a social networking and online management tool for backing up and sharing contact information. The deal represents further evidence of how vendors are attempting to facilitate the movement of social networking services from PCs to the mobile phone, says Ri Pierce-Grove, analyst at Datamonitor:

“Consumers will increasingly be able to move seamlessly between the PC and the mobile phone, keeping their friends and contacts aware of their movements as they choose. This has a number of positive consequences for providers like Vodafone. It increases consumers' use of data plans, and, potentially, provides a new source of revenue via advertising. Both mobile providers and social networking services are competing to find the right mix of platforms and partnerships in order to meet consumer demand.”

Expect similar deals soon. Back in February, analyst Informa Telecoms & Media released research that told users to expect mobile social networking to be a multi-billion business by 2012.

With more individuals logging on to social networks to join productivity, entertainment and social shopping communities, the analyst reported the growth in user registrations will continue at 30 to 50 per cent a year. Informa estimated there could be up to 23 per cent penetration of mobile social networks among users globally by 2012.

Further reading

• Mobile social networking is a community thing
• How can you make money from social networking?
• Social web is about improvement, not innovation
• Next generation social networking
• Finding useful Web 2.0 and social networking tools
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels