Why Friendster Failed to Become a Billion Dollar Company
Posted on May 29th, 2007 | Subscribe in a Reader | Subscribe by Email
Before I give more details why Friendster failed in becoming a top social networking site in the world, let me give some basic info about the company, courtesy from Wikipedia.
Friendster is an Internet social network service. The Friendster site was founded in Mountain View, California by Jonathan Abrams in March 2002 and is privately owned.
Google offered $30,000,000 to buy out Friendster in 2003, but they were turned down.
Friendster was considered the top online social network service until around April 2004 when it was overtaken by MySpace in terms of page views, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Friendster has also received competition from all-in-one sites such as Windows Live Spaces, Yahoo! 360, and Facebook.
Friendster’s decision to remain private instead of selling to Google in 2003 is considered one of the biggest blunders of Silicon Valley, the Associated Press claims.
…Friendster, once the hottest start-up in America, became the butt of a business joke continues to preoccupy Jonathan Abrams. And no wonder. By the rules of Silicon Valley, Friendster–a bold idea backed by experienced investors and the best managers money could buy–was destined for greatness. Instead, it failed spectacularly. “I did what you’re always told to do as a young entrepreneur,” Abrams says. “I brought on experienced investors to help Friendster fulfill its potential. But the all-star team was the curse of death…”
Did you know?
It was reported that the Philippines has the most number of Friendster members worldwide. Filipinos prefer Friendster more than any other social or community site. As such, Friendster has become part of Filipino cyberculture and contemporary popular culture.
Friendster is worried
From a business standpoint, the revelation was devastating. Friendster, it turned out, was paying millions of dollars a year to attract eyeballs that were effectively worthless to its advertisers. Says Abrams: “We needed to make a tough decision”–either spin off the Asian business or become the No. 1 Filipino social network. But because the Filipino users had come by way of their American friends, there was no easy answer. Read more about the article here.
It looks like we are part of the reason why Friendster failed…boo hoo
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May 30th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
I wouldn’t react to that. I don’t know what’s up with pinoys using friendster. They have multiple accounts and have thousands of friends that they don’t even know! Geez.
June 12th, 2007 at 8:20 am
i think pinoy must support their local networking website. =) like oyaye.com, partybacolod.com, wepinoy.com etc. =)
June 21st, 2008 at 6:24 am
its because pinoys are addicted to Overlay Layouts but friendster is always blocking it… so some members are so upset and choice to use multiply.com instead