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Peoplesound connects mobile social networkers via SMS

Social networking has swept the nation by storm, with more than 3 million mobile users texting-in status updates regularly to their favorite social network.

Aware of that opportunity, Buongiorno, a multinational provider of mobile content and entertainment, has launched peoplesound, an integrated SMS and mobile Web-based social network. Peoplesound offers a mobile alternative for sharing status updates, multimedia content and comments.

"Peoplesound's strength is in its simplicity and utilitarianism," said Fernando González Mesones,
head of global marketing for product and supply at Buongiorno, Milan, Italy.

"We designed it to work on any Java phone, so you don't need a smartphone, and the aim is to fill real-time communication for friends and family across Web and mobile that is less formal than email, and has less noise than a site like Facebook," he said.

Peoplesound's mission is to keep people actively in touch with the ones they love via instant chat, one-click photo uploads and an iPhone application. Peoplesound works with free SMS texting from the Web or WAP platform.

Peoplesound is what has evolved of the former beta version called blinko, a mobile-centric social network that has claims real-time interaction through SMS texting.

According to recent research from JP Morgan, social networks are successful because they provide a higher form of technology to their customers so that they can more efficiently fulfill social needs.

The study showed that more than 80 percent of social networking users admit that they use their site to stay in touch with friends, while only 50 percent use the site to reconnect with old phones. Because of this, the universality of mobile phones makes them ideal to achieve this purpose.

Buongiorno claims that mobile phones serve as a window and primary communications device for an individual's personal life.

"We see the mobile Web and social Web as one, and we are designing a product to evolve with the feedback of the U.S. audience," Mr. Mesones said. "Because the U.S. audience has a higher saturation of smartphones, we designed and developed the peoplesound iPhone application in Los Gatos through the talent at Rocketmobile.

"The timing of the release alongside the new iPhone 3G S will mean peoplesound users can take advantage of the autofocus and faster performance for sharing photos and media if they are using the latest iPhone," he said.

The peoplesound application will also work on any iPhone 2G or 3G, as well as the iPod touch.

Buongiorno claims that only 4 percent of basic feature phone owners access social networking, so no computer or Internet access is needed to share status updates through peoplesound.

Peoplesound hopes to be the link between computer-centric social networking and mobile-centric, tapping into the entry-phone market and the smartphone demographic that accesses social networking sites via mobile four times more than basic phone users.

"By picking up the tab for our users to send an SMS on a photo they just posted, or a comment to a news item -- which can be done in peoplesound when your friend is not currently online through Web or WAP, we encourage meaningful interaction with people that really care about what one another are doing," Mr. Mesones said.

"Since no computer or Internet access are necessary to share updates, it's truly the most logical evolution for social networking," he said.