Trend: The Mobile Taste of the Beijing Games

Innovative ways of applying mobile devices give audience worldwide unique perspectives of the event.

Trend Description:

Not being able to launch 3G does not mean this year’s Olympics keeps  the hottest mobile media outside China. A bunch of companies are rolling out their mobile applications for the Games, which, if not becoming popular right away, carry profound meanings for world-level events later on.

Cases:

Twitter’s #080808 Campaign

Twitter’s campaign (pronounced tag 080808) is chalking up good result since the opening ceremony on August 8, 2008. Initiated only two days before the opening of the Games, it claims about 5000 entries coming in on the big day and is updated with an average rate of 1 piece every 0.2 seconds. A secret of its success is the easy way to press the keys of “0? and “8? on mobile phones. No matter who are you are and where you are, as long as you think or experience something related to the Olympics, you can tweet a couple of words starting with”#080808?.

Lenovo Olympics 2008 Application

Levono, one of the top sponsors of the Beijing Games and the official PC provider is NOT gonna lag behind those mobile savvy in playing with new technology. It lined up with Zumobi and rolled out the Lenovo Olympic 2008 Application, with which users of microsoft mobile, blackberries and iPhone can follow up the latest sports news, images and comments during the Olympics. It also contains blog posts selected ramdonly from anonymous athletes and is powered by ads of Lenovo and Intel.

Qik:

Located in California, Qik is a video-sharing company that allows Qikkers to stream their mobile captures directly to the website. Users have access to the service when they buy mobile phones installed with the software and will save money if they have signed up for unlimited data plans. Qik is now encouraging its users to send back footages taken on-the-spot of the Games. It will be  a great fun for journalists and spectators who use proper telephone plans to point their mobile phones directly to what they are experiencing. Check up the Qikker’s footage of the opening ceremony here.

Trend Potential:

Given the fact that 3G is still to come in China, there is no sweeping success for any mobile application in the Beijing Games so far. However, the experience drawn here and business models initiated will remain good cases for later studies.

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