Vipera is a new mobile social network with a twist – it’s aimed at people in developing countries. That makes a great deal of makes sense. We are talking about places where to say “Facebook” would make people think of a book with faces in it, not a social network. But ask them about a mobile phone, and they will show you a charging point.
Vipera, in beta, employs a combination of microblogging/publishing and instant messaging on the handset. Users to go http://vipera.mobi and download the java client. Users can browse Vipera content; create public or private blogs; publish pictures, text, audio (and soon video) to blogs and chat with people and subscribe to their blogs. You can create “places” and collect friends. Think Twitter/Flickr/MySpace on a mobile. Vipera sends data via GPRS/EDGE/CDMA/UMTS/WiFi data connection. The company claims the java app works on 500+ wide handset models and so far it has 200,000 users in 120 countries.
Founded in 2005, Vipera is a privately held company with offices in Zurich, Switzerland, in Milan, Italy and an offshore technical development centre in Bangalore, India.
I think it’s really cool that these social nets, especially mobile ones, are spreading to developing countries. The impact on people who have never connected in this way before is considerable, take this comment:
jbjolicoeur from Mauritius
The one who invented this software will be blessed forever. There’s something awesome about it. We feel free to express ourselves, people are open and ready to consider our views, etc. Vipera is an instrument of change for the world. After using Vipera you are no longer the same person.
And if that sounds OTT, you can believe it when it means someone has managed to type out something like this tale of human rights abuse on a mobile.
I’d love to think these guys could one day get their hands on an iPhone and a Flickr account but until then apps like Vipera are going to be their link to this brave new world.
They would be better off offering their service over mobile web rather than a java download if they are aiming to target developing markets. People like mygamma, texomobile are already in this space. The scale of mobile traffic from india, SA, indonesia etc is massive, the probem is that CPMs are low although you can monetise it with admob to some extent.
It’s true that mobile market is a lot more developed in developing countries than internet, but you have to remember that those are mostly dated phones with little to no web capability. The java app can be some way of reaching them, but not that many of those phones are even java capable, much less having a color high-res screen. The other stopper it the GPRS cost in those countries – typically it’s the last service that sees price drops in gsm world.
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”We are talking about places where to say “Facebook” would make people think of a book with faces in it, not a social network.”
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This sentence makes no sense at all. Several millions of people here in Europe havent heard of ‘Facebook’ as well.
Connectivity problems aside, millions of people in Africa are heavily into social networking.
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”I’d love to think these guys could one day get their hands on an iPhone and a Flickr account but until then apps like Vipera are going to be their link to this brave new world”
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Mike, I doubt if you’ve ever visited Africa. if you have, you wouldnt be writing ‘jokes’ like this.
Yinka – Hey man, chill out. I was merely trying to make the point that to think of Facebook as the be-all-and-end-all of social networking is wrong, so we agree. I was also making the point that iPhone are way too expensive, so mobile social networks in developing countries will have to work on many different kinds of handsets.
As for your crack about me not visiting Africa – as it happens half my family is African and I’ve been visiting there since 1970. OK with you?
Good to know Mike.
Sure there are issues, but there are two fundamental facts:
1) mobile networks in many parts of Africa (and in other developing areas of the world) are far more used (and cheaper to further develop) to access the web and “traditional internet channels”: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/wtdr_06/index.html
2) there is great investment in building mobile phones and more broadely mobile services applicable within developing markets, including by Motorola.
Vipera, may not be the perfect solution, but the point that a mobile social network in developing countries is a winning solution (business-wise and social impact-wise) solidly stands.