Japanese ad-funded mobile social networking service mobikade, which recently launched in the UK, has announced the release of a free SMS feature. mobikade users can now send free SMS messages to any mobile in the UK from the mobikade website or WAP site. The offer is available to the first 10,000 users who register
on mobikade.
To gain a free SMS message, users need to accumulate mobikade
points. Points can be earned by using various features on the mobikade WAP site. For example, registering earns you 300 points and logging in to the mobikade WAP site earns 10 points daily. The service will also be integrated into leading universities student union web sites in the near future.

The free SMS feature will further strengthen mobikade as the tool to be used for social networking on mobile phones says Atul Sasane, Head of New Business at
Global Network Solutions (GNS) Europe, which, together with Excite Japan, is behind the services UK launch. Most of our target audience is used to communicating with their buddies via SMS. mobikade makes this possible for free and at the same time provides personal mobile space to keep track of whats new in your life, by posting updates on Whats up now?. We will keep adding more
features to mobikade to strengthen its community features.

Yuki Wada, VP, International Business at Excite Japan adds:

The Japanese Mobile ad-funded market in FY2006 amounted to 156 million – a 35% increase compared to FY2005. In this market, ad-funded mobile social networking services have been hugely successful. One of the sites has achieved, in 12 months: over 5 million users, 10 billion monthly page views and 12 million revenue, mainly by advertisements. mobikade is consistent with this service model, deployed with a UK flavour.