SmartMobs blogged a new Mobile Social Networking service - WhoAt

a social networking and dating site designed for mobile phones. You tell it where you are and it tells you where your friends and nearby potential friends are. It works via mobile phone browsers (WAP/WML and XHTML-MP), SMS, and standard web browsers. New York and San Francisco are the first target regions. I asked Jamie Byers, who sent the pointer and description, what makes WhoAt different from similar sites, like Dodgeball. Jamie replied:

- WhoAt also introduces users to people they don’t know, rather than only friends and friends-of-friends, using a dating-like matching system.
WhoAt is made for mobile browsers and use via laptops / handhelds,
whereas Dodgeball appears to be SMS only.

“When you can see a bandwagon, it’s too late” as Lord Hanson said. Now VC’s are bored with the Online Social Networking bandwagon, here’s a new one to emerge, methinks - YAMSNADA. Yet Another Mobile Social Networking and Dating Application
Actually, unlike the online version, which still seems to me to be an idea in search of a business model, the mobile version may make sense. It’s much more realistic to expect people to pay for services on their mobiles, as they always have done.

I can also see that in usability terms, the impulse to look for a date or a friend NOW lends itself better to mobile. Impulse services are also greatly enhanced by the recipe “add alcohol” and if you’re sitting in bar after a few drinks….

The trouble with mobile though is more about critical mass. Imagine I’m a hip young dude in downtown New York (I know it’s difficult, but try to imagine) and I fancy hooking up with a cool girl or a FOAF (Friend of a Friend). So I whip out my mobile and get surfing on WhoAt (or similar service). And (as it’s early days for them) there’s no one in my area.

So I try a gain a few days later with the same result. And then try again….and give up.

The key difference between online and location-based mobile social networking is the fourth dimension - time. Online it’s relatively easy to get critical mass , as I just need to recuit some like-minded people. In a mobile context, I need to recruit them AND have enough of them that they’ll be in certain places at certain times. Mathematically (though I have no idea how to prove this!) it’s going to be incredibly less likely that you’ll find someone by adding this new dimension.

So the answer must be to marry online with mobile. Neither can succeed big time (ie in VC type returns) without the other.

Friendster should buy them….

By the way, if you’re interested in this social networking thang, check out Scott Allen’s blog here. It’s sister site to this one.