Social Networking Goes Mobile

Social Networking Goes Mobile MySpace, Facebook Strike Deals With Cell Companies; A New Set of Safety Concerns By LI YUAN and REBECCA BUCKMAN April 4, 2006; Page D1

In a development likely to generate dismay from some parents and teachers, social networking sites MySpace and Facebook are going mobile.

Tens of millions of teenagers spend countless hours logging on to such sites, updating their profiles, posting pictures, writing blogs and exchanging messages. Until now, the services have been largely tethered to desktops or laptops. Now, Facebook Inc., a popular social-networking Web site among college students, and Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless are starting a service that will make it possible for users to post messages on Facebook's home pages or search for other users' phone numbers and email addresses from a cellphone.

MySpace, the most popular social networking Web site in terms of unique visitors, has made a deal with wireless venture Helio Inc. that later this spring will allow MySpace users to do such things as send photos and update the blogs on their MySpace online profile by cellphone. Others who access that profile would instantly be able to see and read about what's happening at, say, a local hot spot.

Wireless companies are pushing to offer more social-networking features because the young people that gravitate to these services also tend to be the heaviest users of text messaging, picture messaging and ring-tone downloads. These services are becoming increasingly important as growth in cellphone service subscription is expected to decline and rate competition intensifies.

Some parents, educators and law-enforcement officials have concerns about the potential dangers of social-networking sites. Some of the sites have been accused of exposing children to risqué content and sexual predators. The possible role of MySpace also surfaced in separate investigations into the deaths of two teens, one in New Jersey and one in California. Jo Anne Swyers, a lieutenant at a sheriff's department in Dodge County, Wis., says the new wireless social-networking features will make it harder for law enforcement to protect children.

All major cellphone carriers say they offer free parental-control services. Parents can either disable or lock data services if they want to keep their children from using social-networking services, or they can call the providers to turn off features. Chris DeWolfe, MySpace chief executive officer, says that the Web site "takes our users' safety very seriously" and reviews pictures and other materials. Helio says it will require MySpace users to affirm that they're 18 years or older when signing in. AirG Inc. has a staff of 15 that monitors traffic and filters out inappropriate words, pictures, and numbers and texts that look like phone numbers and addresses.

The cellphone services of MySpace and Facebook, so far, have been mostly limited to text messages, and some new features don't go much beyond that. John Harrobin, a Verizon Wireless vice president, says safety concerns about social-networking sites are one reason the company's deal with Facebook is limited to text messaging for now. A Facebook spokeswoman says that extending some Facebook services to cellphones "doesn't pose any additional privacy risks" since the same privacy settings and controls that people put on Facebook apply to phone services.

While scaled-down social-networking services have been available to cellphone users for a few years, the latest deals aim to make the sites' core features and functions available anywhere. Previously, such mobile features consisted of updates and alerts via text message that often required users to log back on to the Web site to respond. The new features, while not the equivalent of using the full Web site on the go, are a significant step forward for the social-networking concept, in some cases allowing users to look up names and browse message boards wirelessly.

Social-networking sites have become hugely popular on the Internet by allowing users to create personalized Web pages and share them with others. In February, Facebook sites had 10.5 million unique visitors, compared with 37.3 million visitors to rival MySpace.com, according to research firm comScore Media Metrix, which makes it the second most-visited site on the Internet, behind Yahoo.com of Yahoo Inc. Facebook has recently talked with media and Internet companies, including Viacom Inc., about possible partnerships or being acquired by them. News Corp. last year paid $580 million, plus a $69 million loan, to buy the parent company, Intermix Media Inc., of MySpace.com.

Cellphones can also take social networking beyond what is possible on computers because they make it possible to identify the approximate location of callers. Cingular subscribers, for example, have access to CoolTalk, a service from AirG, and Rabble, developed by Intercasting Corp. Users of these services can specify whether they want to search for other members within a one-mile, five-mile or 20-mile radius or search by ZIP Code, neighborhood or city. Once they get in touch, users can communicate by phone, text message or even send photographs before deciding to meet. So if the other person is nearby, such as in a coffee shop, the two people can meet immediately.

Wireless companies usually charge five to 10 cents for each text message received and sent. They also sell a bucket of text messages for $5 to $10 a month. Picture messaging costs much more. Sprint charges $5 a month plus bandwidth usage if phone users send only a few messages a month. For people who send a lot of pictures or want to browse the Web on their phones, Sprint recommends $15-to-$25-a-month data packages that allow unlimited usage.

Yesterday Facebook's new mobile services were made available to students at three colleges -- Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. They will be available to students at more than 2,000 universities by the end of this month and high-school users of Facebook by early May, company officials say.

Any phones with text-messaging capabilities can support the new Facebook services; students don't have to download special software or pay extra, though they may pay more total fees for data usage if they send more text messages.

Facebook also has moved its popular "poking" application to phones: Users "poke" others on Facebook by sending quick, blank messages -- recipients get a notification that says "you've been poked" -- that indicates someone is thinking about them. In addition, students can now use their phones to locate phone numbers or email addresses of other Facebook users; they send a text message to the address "fbook," a centralized directory that looks up the name. (Facebook users can use privacy controls to limit those who can access phone numbers and other identifying information.)

Industry analysts say that social networking on cellphone is still in its early stage, and it isn't clear if it will become popular. Cellphones that support more sophisticated services can cost as much as $300, which may be out of reach for many teenagers and college students. They also would have to pay an extra $10 to $25 a month for data packages.

--Jessica E. Vascellaro contributed to this article.

Write to Li Yuan at li.yuan@wsj.com1 and Rebecca Buckman at rebecca.buckman@wsj.com2 URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114411026875415973.html

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