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Mobile social networks are sprouting up everywhere, but fortunately they’re not all the same. With 14 employees, bluepulse has seen just over 3 million downloads in 10 months, in more than 160 countries. Unlike portals run by mobile providers, Bluepulse is 100% carrier and handset independent, and the company plans to introduce a developer API to encourage more mobile applications based on the bluepulse network. Bluepulse’s founder & CEO, Ben Keighran, told us why he thinks his service is different from other mobile social networks.

How does bluepulse work?
Keighran: Bluepulse is a free mobile social messenger that is based on a very robust mobile platform that we started working on around five years ago. The platform allows anyone with an Internet-enabled cell phone to type “bluepulse.com” into their phone’s Web browser and get access to a custom version of the bluepulse social messenger for their specific phone. The magic of bluepulse is that it looks like it was built for your specific phone.

How do people use it?
Keighran: Once a user has bluepulse, they can use it to create a pulse, which is a dynamic profile about themselves using pictures, video and text. As they add content to their pulse, their friends are notified of the updates through a unique mobile messaging system. The system allows friends to have an improved way of communicating with each other using their cell phones by displaying instant updates to friends, pulses, new friendships that have been made on bluepulse, one-to-one and group messages.

Can I contact people outside the network?
Keighran: Bluepulse also enables users to send messages to anyone by typing in an email address, phone number, name or group name. If the message recipient is not yet a bluepulse user, an invitation to use bluepulse will automatically be sent to them. This means that users can easily invite their friends to join them on bluepulse.

What makes bluepulse different?
Keighran: The first thing that distinguishes bluepulse from other mobile social networks is that bluepulse has been built on a very robust mobile platform; it literally works on any Internet-enabled phone. Really, that’s the only limitation. The second thing that distinguishes bluepulse from other mobile social networks is that it is based on a trusted network. This means that people use real names, real phone numbers as opposed to anonymous profiles. And with this trusted network and the intelligence behind the platform, bluepulse users are introduced to their friends’ friends automatically. Bluepulse is an improved way of communicating with real friends on a mobile, as opposed to a place for broadcasting content and meeting random people, which is typically what bluepulse’s competitors offer.

Is bluepulse being used for business purposes or just for entertainment?
Keighran: Not one or the other, really. It is being used as a communication tool by anyone and everyone, whether for business or making social plans or sharing pictures and videos or updating friends, colleagues and family.

Do you see any threats to your business model?
Keighran: Bluepulse has an ad-supported business model. Advertising on mobile phones is very new territory for everyone and until someone gets the model right, this model could be a threat to our business.

What are the most common misconceptions about social networks?
Keighran: There is a belief that there will be one universal social network for everyone – that one size fits all. However, the larger each social network gets, the more niche they need to become. Each social network needs to have a unique selling proposition in order to succeed. Bluepulse not only targets the social messaging niche, but it targets the mobile device as well.