Eccosphere Creeps Into Social Network Scene

A telecom executive with a successful track record in the European wireless services market has a new social networking portal called Eccosphere International Pty Ltd. in pre-launch mode, and has identified mobile users as his target market.

The executive is Giles Corbett, currently a board member of ScreenTonic SA , a mobile advertising startup that is being acquired by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT). (See Microsoft Acquires ScreenTonic.)

Eccosphere is currently under development, but a blurb found lurking with Corbett's LinedIn profile, says the aim of the new company is: "Bringing to market a revolutionary way for mobile users to manage their circles of life, extending from day to day contacts to entire social networks. All with one thumb."

The company appears to have been formed in December 2006. No funding details are available.

Corbett isn't spilling the beans on his latest venture just yet, saying only that "it will be completely focused on the way people use their mobile phones."

He faces stiff competition, though, as the giants of the social networking scene, such as MySpace , are already encroaching on the mobile world. (See Vodafone Takes MySpace Mobile.)

Corbett was previously the co-CEO of mobile games developer and service provider In-Fusio , which he left in 2005 after five years. Before that he was the services marketing director at French mobile operator SFR . (See In-Fusio Raises $27M, Orange Commits To In-Fusio, and In-Fusio Develops Games.)

After leaving In-Fusio, he was a partner at a small venture capital firm called Asia Business Bridge Ventures for a year, until he left and formed Eccosphere.

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading