Eden Zoller
Nokia acquires Twango for own social networking play
Nokia has acquired the key assets of social networking start-up Twango for an undisclosed sum, although reports suggest a figure of around $96 million. Redmond-based Twango, founded by ex-Microsoft employees, has a fledging online social network, based on a solution developed by the company that allows people to share photos, videos and other personal media. Comment: Twango joins a growing number of acquisitions and investments by Nokia over the past year that aim to position Nokia as a key player in the Web 2.0 world of rich multimedia social networking services. The investments include music download specialist Loudeye; German mapping software and services company Gate 5; and online TV start up kyte.tv. Nokia will launch a revamped Twango service in the first half of 2008. Although it is being cagey about exact plans, it is clear that those plans are ambitious, which is typical of Nokia. It will use Twango to launch a social network and media sharing service that is likely to see paid-for elements. Also, there will be some 'Nokiarisation' of the existing Twango brand. Nokia's implementation will see tighter integration of the client on Nokia devices. Currently Twango's mobile service is accessed via browsers, while photos and other media are supported via email. It is also available via desktops. Nokia will enhance the service from its existing propositions, for example around mapping and navigation. The Twango solution is attractive because it supports a wide range of media formats and flexible sharing scenarios. Twango is also preparing to release its APIs, so we should see new applications for a wide range of devices. One of Twango's founders even suggested those in the living room. This is where Twango starts to get very interesting. Twango is positioned in the exploding social networking space alongside giants like MySpace, Flickr and Vox. It only started commercial services last October and admits that its customer base is very modest in comparison. Nokia has partnerships with Flickr and Vox and says it will maintain agreements with both, even though it intends to use Twango to launch a rival service. However, although Twango is currently unlikely to bother the big guns, things could get interesting if it ramps up quickly. Given Nokia's huge device market reach this is possible, particularly as it intends to provide a highly integrated, pre-installed Twango client on its devices. And Nokia is not confining this to the obvious high-end candidates like the NSeries and other Series 60 smartphones, but also mid-range mass market products based on the Series 40 platform. Nokia clearly intends Twango to be an international play and has said it will put the people and resources behind the start-up to achieve this. Couple this with the enhancements Nokia has in store for Twango and you are looking at what could be an attractive service with global reach across a wide variety of devices.
