Mobile Social Communities to Count 174 Million Members by 2011

Mobile social communities, where people maintain connections to a niche community via cell phone-based services, currently count nearly 50 million members worldwide -- a number expected to reach 174 million in 2011, according to a report from market research firm ABI Research.

"The rapid rise of online social communities -- gathering places such as MySpace and Facebook -- has done more than bring the 'pen pal' concept into the 21st century," said ABI vice president Clint Wheelock. "It has created a new paradigm for personal networking. In a logical progression, many social communities are now based on the mobile phone and other portable wireless devices instead of (or as well as) the PC."

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