Introduction

Abstract

In Seoul, a young female office worker uses the social mobile media platform app KakaoTalk to play I Love Coffee with her friends working in other offices. In Singapore, a teenage girl waiting for friends in a café takes a picture with her iPhone and uploads it to her account on the location-based mobile website Foursquare, to show her late friends she has already arrived. In Tokyo, a young male commuting to work plays Subway Surfers: Tokyo on his Samsung Galaxy while intermittently checking emails and Twitter feeds. In Sydney, a teenage boy on his way to school checks his World of Warcraft (WoW) guild stats and successfully bids for a recently posted item in one of the auction houses using the WoW Mobile Armory app. In Melbourne, a mother switches her iPhone to Airplane Mode and opens her toddler’s favourite puzzle game Tozzle so he can play (and stay put) while they wait in line at the supermarket. Over in Shanghai, a university student and her mother keep in regular online contact by playing Happy Farm together.