Nokia get social sense - makes first acquisition in SN domain

By Vivek | July 23rd, 2007 at 03:56 pm ET         

These are definitely the big days for social networking space. Couple of days back social networking site Hi5 was in news for raising $20 million in funding, yesterday it was Tagged for raising $15 million, and Facebook is always in the background with another number added to it’s multi-billion dollar buyout rumors that currently stand at $6 $10 billion. And now it is the day for another significant news - Nokia joining the social networking play via acquiring all the assets of Twango. Twango, is a privately-owned company founded by former Microsoft veterans, headquartered in Redmond, Washington.

First talks about the acquisition started in the fall of last year when the handset manufacturer started talking with almost 70 probable candidates. After looking at cost, scalability, userbase, experience of team, and quite a bit of features, Nokia management arrived at the decision to get Twango onboard. By acquiring Twango, Nokia plans to provide a deeper integration of social apps built right into the mobile phones. From the product standpoint nothing really goes live in the next months, you can expect significant integration points in Q1 of next year.

While Nokia might be building up a well thought off strategy around supplying social mobile apps, the handset manufacturer does face serious risks in US where wireless carriers exert far greater control on the devices they give out to their consumers. The situation is much better in Asia and Europe, but let’s wait and watch how things shape up as the mobile carriers start making similar moves out here.

Twango @ StartupSquad.com:
Twango media uploads go untethered
Twango gets onto Google Earth

Links:
Twango