AOL's Purchase Of Bebo Could Boost Its Mobile Aspirations

What could AOL's purchase of Bebo mean in the mobile space? Compared to Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG), AOL (NYSE: TWX) hasn't grabbed the same number of headlines when it comes to wireless news. But according to research firm Hitwise, the US traffic to AOL's mobile web site last year was actually higher than Google Mobile, and nearly twice that of MSN Mobile. AOL has also been working hard to rehaul its online assets for mobile. In October last year, it announced it had upgraded its WAP portal with brand new versions of its search and email as well as improved AIM functionality, including a text message-based AIM short code service and a GPS-enabled widget called AIM Buddy Finder. It also announced a mobile portal in the works. Its master plan is to eventually offer a suite of tools in its AOL MyMobile portal, much like Yahoo does with its Go browser which houses its "One" mobile applications.

The purchase of Bebo should fit nicely into their mobile plans. Social networks are also considered hot property in the mobile space. Facebook and MySpace have said that traffic from mobile devices has surged from last year, and MySpace has said it expects half of its traffic to come from mobile in the next five years. Plus, Bebo's core audience of 13-24 year olds, slightly younger than those of Facebook and MySpace, are seen as especially mobile savvy and as mobile research firm M:Metrics found those under 25 are the most active users of mobile social networking sites across all geographies. In October, Bebo and AOL announced the integration of AIM into Bebo's online platform, plus an AIM/Bebo client, that among other things, allows for mobile IM chat.

Bebo too, has been busy in the mobile space, striking deals with operators to carry its service. In February, it partnered with social network technology provider Intercast to put Bebo on its Anthem platform giving the social net's users a better way to share content and photographs on their mobiles. AOL's purchase of Bebo could mean a big boost for its mobile operations outside of the US, and especially in the UK where Bebo is one of the country's most popular social nets and the third most visited mobile social net after Facebook and MySpace. In the UK, M:Metrics puts Bebo's monthly visitors to its mobile site at around 310,000, not massively behind MySpace's 417,000, and Facebook's 680,000.

Read more about the deal at our sister site PaidContent.org.