Tech Stream

What now for Friendster?

31 July 2009

Listen and download: MP3

I had a chance this week to speak with Richard Kimber, the Australian-based CEO of one of the longest running social networking site on the web Friendster.com.  We spoke about social networking trends in Asia; why Friendster made the physical move into the region and he also confirmed that the recent rumours on Tech Crunch were true: Friendster was looking for a buyer interested in purchasing the company or some of its assets. You can hear the full interview with the MP3 link at the top of this post, or read on for more.Friendster was the first online social network that I joined, and I even met some now good friends on it.   But as its now-departed founder Jonathan Abrams recently told the LA Times the site got too big too fast and was plagued by technical problems. In the US and elsewhere Myspace was able to move in and clean up because it was not only faster and more reliable but allowed a wider age group to join.  I also went to Myspace to interact with bands and artists and then eventually, like a lot of people, joined Facebook as the later-adopters in my social circle discovered that service.

But away from countries like Australia and the United States Friendster continued to grow. It became, and remains, extremely popular in the Philippines and other countries in Asia.  The company estimates it has around 100 million users and has incorporated some fairly forward thinking elements like OpenSocial application support and also DIY advertising systems.  The fact sheets that Tech Crunch got their hands on suggest Friendster “attracts over 100,000 new users and 500 million page views on a daily basis, making it a top 20 global website based on user traffic.”

They also moved their operations into the region at the beginning of 2009, with their CEO Richard Kimber (a former regional managing director at Google) basing himself in Sydney.   He told me that while Facebook has become the dominant social networking website there is still plenty of room for other players and that their isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ for how people want to connect with those they know, or haven’t yet met, online.