Mobile social network MocoSpace, which has over 11 million registered users, has made its first foray into the world of smartphone applications with an Android app.
MocoSpace, which launched in 2006, was previously only mobile web-based and prided itself on its users mainly being non-techies who don’t own an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry device. The site makes money with its virtual currency and through advertising and mainly reaches the 18 to 34 age demographic. And MocoSpace claims to generate 3 billion pages per month, with users mobile users accessing the site over 5 times per day on average.
The functionality of the Android app is fairly simple. It allows for live chat with friends currently on app or on the mobile website, photo uploads, profile viewing and commenting and message notifications. The company decided to launch an app on the Android platform first because number of Android users accessing the MocoSpace mobile website had spiked by 40% over the past six months and is growing faster than other devices, including the iPhone and Blackberry.
Though not nearly as popular as Facebook or MySpace, MocoSpace is now one of the largest mobile-only social networks. It should be interesting to see if the network can create a userbase from smartphone apps.