Helsinki — Finnish handset maker Nokia on Monday moved to beef up its mobile navigation and social networking start-up business to its portfolio Monday by acquiring Plazes AG, a smaller rival to services like Twitter and Jaiku — as part of the world’s top mobile phone maker’s push into offering Internet services for an undisclosed sum.
Presently in beta, the Berlin-based Plazes, developer of a social-networking Web site allows friends locate and update their locations and activities using either Plazes software or by sending text messages.
Users can purchase activity streams from their friends or groups of friends, as well as to streams from specific locations. The purchase is anticipated to close in the third quarter of 2008 subject to regulatory approvals.
“This purchase helps Nokia to speed up its vision of bringing people and places closer together, in line with our broader services strategy,” said Niklas Savander, head of Nokia Services & Software, in a statement.
Plazes is the second Berlin based company to be acquired by Nokia, who did the same thing in 2006 with Gate5. A couple of months later, the service that the company offered have been turned into Nokia Maps, with which the mobile phone producer wants to attack Google Maps.
Plazes fits into Nokia’s grand Ovi (door) scheme and seems to be betting big on Web-based location services with its 2007 acquisition of Navteq, upon which it is layering its mobile navigation and social networking features.
These purchases are anticipated to give Nokia phones functionality that sets the company apart from other manufacturers. Plazes has been developing applications for other mobile devices, including Apple’s iPhone, and it is not known if Nokia will continue those efforts.
Nokia said Plazes “adds the essentials of ‘place’ and ‘time’ to social networking through features that allow people to alert friends of their activity and location; review their own and others’ past activities; share their experiences; and make plans with friends, who are then able to respond with comments and suggestions as well as their own location information.”
“In addition to the key assets, along with this acquisition Nokia will bring forth a visionary team with an advanced understanding of social-activity services, as well as the technical ability to further develop this area,” said Savander.
Social networking is likely to play an important role in Ovi, Nokia’s direct-to-consumer umbrella brand that will comprise music, games, mapping and other wireless offerings. The Finnish handset manufacturer also last year acquired Tango, a Seattle-based social networking startup, and the company recently launched MOSH, a community centered on mobile content.
Although, many of the sections do not collectively work well yet, but a draft outline is taking shape as Nokia — which has a 40% market share of mobile phone handsets worldwide — dives into entertainment and social networking to bolster its traditional call- and data-driven services and products.
The move will strengthen Nokia’s effort to minimize reliance on service providers, because so much key technology is provided by the handset manufacturer itself. Nokia’s offerings may eventually compete with established social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the 13 developers working at Plazes are expected to become part of Nokia’s services-and-software division.