I Link You

I need more text messages

They were not kidding when they say that Europeans text a lot more than they make phone calls. As most phone plans in Europe cater towards giving lots of free SMS messages in mobile phone packages, many young Europeans prefer to be texted rather than get a call.

Why is this so? Well, many European students (including many of my friends in the program) are using prepaid mobile services. As texting only costs about 0.10 Euros per message versus the 0.55 Euros per call, the average student's elasticity of demand was at play. I would rather be able to text five times than make a one-minute phone call.

In addition, many young Europeans text due to convenience. They don't have to make a phone call. It takes a matter of seconds to write a SMS. It is more discreet than a phone call as you don't need to inform people around you that you are making a phone call. You can text nearly everywhere because it's discreet. In addition, you don't need to be able to hear the person on the other side in order to communicate. Lots of young people use SMS to communicate at loud venues such as concerts, jazz clubs, and nightclubs. Every time my friends and I would go clubbing, I see many young Europeans with their phones in hand ready to read/send/receive SMS at any point.

Is there any way social networking could go on mobile? Can a facebook or myspace mobile ever be successful on the small screen? The main concern from my friends is price. As they don't pay for facebook or myspace online, many of them are hesitant to pay for mobile social networking services. In addition, many are hesitant to use social networking services on mobile phone because it would be way too much information to digest on small screen. Unless social networking applications are cheaper than sending SMS messages, many young Europeans are comfortable with using SMS as means to stay connected. Nonetheless, there is still another contingent of young Europeans that would love to access their Skyblog on their mobile phones. One guy showed me his Skyblog account on mobile, and I was surprised by the rich content crammed into a tiny screen.

posted by Koh @ 2:22 AM