New aggregation service is designed to complement Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.
Orange UK says its new Social Life service isn't trying to compete with existing social networks, but rather aggregate them to make life easier for mobile users.
"Social Life is trying to make it easier for our customers to manage their social networks," head of product management Mark Watts-Jones tells ME. "It's very complementary to the social networks: it's not designed to replace them."
The service, which was announced earlier today, is mobile web based rather than an application. It sits within the Orange World portal, and lets users browse and update their Facebook, MySpace and Bebo accounts.
Future plans
However, while that will make it available to the maximum number of customers, Orange has more plans. "In the first instance we're presenting it to the customer in a mobile website, but in the future we'll be using it in different ways," he says.
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"For example, we'll be connecting Orange Social Life into the homescreen on Orange Signature phones, so that feeds will all come directly in. It will treat users' social networking in the same way as other social communication, like their SMS or MMS."
Watts-Jones says social networking has been a big driver of data usage for Orange UK.
"We have 1.3 million customers who are accessing social networks on their mobile," he says. "Quite a lot are from the young pay-as-you-go segment, where if you top up by £10 a month, you get free social networking."
New services
Other social networks will be added in the coming months - judging by Watts-Jones' comments, Twitter and YouTube are high on Orange's agenda.
Is it essential to have partnerships with the social sites to integrate them with Social Life, though? If their APIs are open, surely Orange can just code them in?
"Not quite," says Watts-Jones. "You can do a certain amount of things to link to these sites, but if you're going to promote them or use them in your advertising, you usually need an agreement with them, as we do with Facebook, MySpace and Bebo."
Working partners
Watts-Jones says the social networks are keen to sign these kinds of partnerships with mobile operators, even though they have their own off-portal mobile sites and smartphone applications.
"They do want exposure and awareness," he says. "They want to put their service wherever the customer is accessing it. Something like Social Life is a win-win-win for customers, Orange and the social networks."
