The social contagion of mobile television

This paper explores an emerging approach to understand the adoption and diffusion of mobile devices and services, namely social contagion. Due to the publicly visible nature of mobile devices, we propose that the influence of those around us has a large effect on the decision to adopt a new service. We describe this approach and its application to a new mobile service, Mobile Television, based on the Digital Video Broadcasting -- Handheld format. Results show how the market segments with the highest potential for social contagion can be identified for this service and how marketing communication can be focused on specific issues which stimulate social contagion in each segment.