Bebo’s 50% growth in the past month does not change NZ market

Although Bebo has experienced 50% growth in the past month from its original 22 million users, Net Mania are urging our New Zealand organisations to be cautious when contemplating using Bebo as a social media service for their organisation.

During the past month Bebo has made significant changes in their appearance and their services.

Last month Bebo redesigned its page layout to be more visually appealing and fresh. It also incorporated Life Stream (a platform that lets users link to their accounts at YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace etc elsewhere on the Internet). These services are a good service for the New Zealand market, but the potential will grow more and more in the future as New Zealand take up the use of Twitter and other social media tools.

Bebo also incorporated AIM integration. AIM is Americas most popular Instant Messenger application. Currently MSN and Yahoo chat are currently New Zealand’s most popular IM software with Skype increasingly becoming popular with businesses and users who prefer to have an alternative to their mobile and land lines.
AIM users are now automatically taken to their buddies profile in Bebo from their AIM account as opposed to the AIM/AOL web site. Also to update your profile in AIM you are now required to do it in Bebo. Thus generating a lot of new traffic and maybe some new registered users.

Vodafone New Zealand have recently allowed SMS notifications and updates from Bebo. But again the typical user of Vodafone is also a typical user of Bebo.

Utilising Bebo in New Zealand for your social media strategy can be a good idea but it is highly dependent on your target market.