In Mobile: Facebook Intros Platform, Google and Microsoft Hone in on China
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | October 25, 2007 | Share This
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Yesterday’s news of Microsoft’s stake in Facebook meant that this item didn’t get a lot of attention: Facebook has opened its mobile platform for developers. Though mobile applications currently exist in the social network, an open mobile Facebook API means the possibility of mobile-exclusive content and integration of SMS features, as well.
Google today says the company’s focus in China will be mobile-dominated and requires a complete overhaul of their offering for the U.S. mobile market. Lee Kai-fu, Google’s president in China, is quoted: “[Chinese] mobile users have very different usage patterns from the American users. Most Chinese users who touch mobile Internet will have no PC at all…That requires thinking from ground zero on how to design products that fit their needs.”
Incidentally, Steve Ballmer also cites China in an interview about Microsoft’s mobile strategy, and the crucial need to think about user behavior in product development:
I think in most parts of the world people will aspire to have a phone and a PC. And yet if you look at the bottom of the emerging middle class in places like China, the 800 millionth richest person in the country, you’re going to find somebody who might have, you know, $50 or $100 they’ll be able to scrape together for a capital expense. We’re going to want to work on experiences that, it may not be a PC but it will be able to dock and become part of the way people think about PC infrastructure. When we have something to announce we’ll announce it, but it’s a very important concept to us.
This also means another sort of race to the finish line, like the Facebook stake war. Continued speculation about Google’s Gphone is likely spurring Microsoft to come up with something, at least in China, before one of its big competitors does. After all, the Zune’s late entry and comparatively poor sales after the iPod had been introduced must still be stinging Microsoft’s pride. It will also be interesting to see how both Google and Microsoft’s somewhat economy-sensitive China strategies translate back to the United States (or not).
Topics: Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Technology, Wireless & Mobile |