The world's largest mobile phone maker adds Plazes to complement Nokia Maps.European geo-based companies continue to be a hot commodity, with Nokia
announcing June 23 it has acquired Plazes, which develops Web platforms for
location sharing and publishing. Vodafone acquired ZYB, a mobile social
network, in May for $31.5 million.
Terms of Nokia's deal with Plazes were not disclosed, but the acquisition is
the second geo-based company bought by Nokia. In 2006, Nokia bought Gate5 for
$250 million and turned it into Nokia Maps.
The deal allows Nokia to extend its context-based service offering with
social presence and time-based activity planning features. Plazes adds the
elements of place and time to social networking through features that allow
people to alert friends and associates to their activities and locations.
Click here to read about Nokia's three-year deal with France Telecom's Orange to push digital entertainment services in Europe.
Users can also review their own and others' past activities and share their
experiences and make plans with friends, who can respond with comments and
suggestions as well as their own location information.
"This acquisition helps Nokia to accelerate its vision of bringing
people and places closer together, in line with our broader services
strategy," said Niklas Savander, chief of Nokia Services & Software.
Felix Petersen, co-founder of Plazes, said Nokia shares his company's vision
of the social networking space. "We feel proud of what the Plazes team has
achieved so far with its pioneering work in context-aware services and we feel
even more excited about what's to come next," Petersen said.
Members of Plazes use the service for location
sharing, updating locations through either laptops or mobile phones, and
updating their online presence with their current, past and future
whereabouts.
Mobile & Wireless 
