Updating my site, knowing what my friends are doing, looking at their latest pictures, getting to know new people – social networking has found a way to mobile phones. AirG, a community specially designed for mobiles, has only recently reached the 20 million user mark, as Frederick Ghahramani, co-founder stated in an interview with MediaPost some days ago.

Mobile Social Networking has become a mainstream phenomenon. And with the increasing number of users also increases the number of opportunities for companies to place their ads. AirG is cooperating with Pizza Hut and Axe. What’s the community’s secret of success? Anyway, it has no big web-brother, such as for example myspace.

According to own statements, the success is due to the fact that the company is giving both of their partners, the advertisers and the users, exactly what they want. AirG is able to provide the advertisers with detailed data such as age, place, sex and even manners and opinions. Missing the target audience should be rather difficult for companies.

The success concerning the users is, according to Ghahramani, a result of not being misguided by the hype around the newest high-end devices like the I-Phone but attending to the mass market. The five most popular mobile phones used to access AirG have a retail price of less than 100 US-Dollars.

Therewith it becomes clear that users of mobile social networks are no paper pushers. 60 per cent of the AirG users have no PC on their own. “Without being pejorative, it’s the 18- to 30-year olds with service-type jobs like the night security guard, or Starbucks employee who are connected to their mobile phone.”Of course – why should a manager fumble around with the mobile while his notebook is waiting behind him?

60 per cent without a personal computer – mobile marketing shows itself as a tremendous possibility for companies to reach this group anyway via a multimedia-channel. Forecasts for the sector are looking good as well: Juniper is forecasting the chat and dating business a rise of users from now 40 up to almost 260 millions in 2012. The expected revenues are more than one billion US-Dollars.

The mobile advertising market indeed is still highly fragmented, but the tendency is leading to standardization and unification. AirG has already succeeded in reconciling different brands, markets and networks.

In my opinion, companies that would like to advertise in the mobile net should attend to approach a wide audience in technical respect. James Cameron put it aptly when he said: “Tapping into the long tail of average users, so to speak, is definitely where the action is.”