MANILA, Philippines—London-based research firm Ovum has warned telecommunications companies of the threat posed by social networking sites, particularly, facebook.com.
In a recent report, the independent telecom analyst said Facebook appeared to be much more than a social network. It has become a communications tool that rivals traditional methods such as calling and sending text messages.
“However operators are being slow to wake up to the extent of Facebook’s ambitions and tend to view it as benign, non-competitive presence that they are keen to form partnerships,” Ovum principal analyst Eden Zoller said.
Since launching in 2006, Zoller noted that Facebook now has well more than half-a-billion users. About 200 million of these use Facebook on their mobile phones.
“It is much more than a social network and is better viewed as an increasingly rich platform for communications and content. Facebook wants to integrate with everything and be the main way that people consume and share information, anywhere and on any device,” Zoller said.
Facebook has made several moves that have placed it in competition with mobile operators. It has an integration deal with Skype for voice communications and in November 2010 unveiled an email offering.
Already, the National TelecommunicationsCommission has noticed the trend of declining text message volumes as more people communicated with each other through the web.
The agency said that in 2009, the average Filipino user sent about 30 text messages per day or a total of well more than 2 billion messages passing throughtelecom networks and cementing the country’s position as the world’s text messaging capital.
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
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