Friendster wires a money transfer feature to the Philippines
Friendster has just introduced a way to send and receive payments with friends on the social network through your mobile phone — if you’re using Filipino currency, that is. This is a smart way for the site to take advantage of the trusted relationships that its users have already made in one of its core demographics (apparently, about a third of the company’s traffic comes from the Philippines). By taking a cut of every transaction,… Continue Reading
Facebook’s traffic growth leaving rivals in the dust
Facebook has grown to 150 million users this month, more than half of whom use the site every day, according to company chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Other social networks, like MySpace, Friendster, hi5, Bebo and Orkut, have also become popular around the world over the last decade, and they all boast tens of millions of users. But none are as large or growing as fast as Facebook
Take a look at the comScore chart, above, and… Continue Reading
Friendster nabs fourth social-networking patent, dozen more pending
Friendster was the first modern social network to really gain traction on the web. But it has lost ground to rivals like MySpace and Facebook over the last five years or so due to a number of missteps. Nevertheless, it has gotten popular in Asia — and in the U.S. patent office. It has just been granted its fourth patent of four that have been considered, and it says it has another dozen or so… Continue Reading
Friendster says it’s compatible with Facebook apps
Social networking site Friendster announced that it now supports applications built on competing network Facebook’s popular platform.
Friendster already supports apps built for OpenSocial (the Google-led effort to make all social sites compatible), and the announcement signals that Friendster is the first network to support both OpenSocial and Facebook apps.
Obviously, Friendster is jumping on the bandwagon of a competing site and trying to steal some of Facebook’s platform success. Still, this late in the game, Friendster’s… Continue Reading
Friendster now allows OpenSocial applications on its social network
Friendster, the social network that’s big in Asia, has launched an OpenSocial version of its nine month old developer platform. This means any application that is already built to the OpenSocial social network developer platform specifications will now more easily work on Friendster; various versions of OpenSocial are already in place on MySpace, hi5, Orkut, and other social networks.
San Francisco-based Friendster first rolled out elements of its own developer platform last October, and some… Continue Reading
Friendster raises $20 million, nabs a Googler to be CEO
Friendster, the formative social network of the modern web era that became a verb for rollercoaster failure and then took over large chunks of the Asian market, has some good news this evening.
It has raised $20 million and plucked Richard Kimber, Google’s regional managing director for South Asia, to be its new chief executive.
IDG Ventures led the round, with existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and Founders Fund participating.
While Friendster is the largest… Continue Reading
Friendster’s growth in Asia could make it the top social network in the world, once again
In the current international land-grab among leading social networks, Facebook is overtaking MySpace as the largest social network in the world. But there’s a big caveat — Asia — where a much-maligned older rival, Friendster continues to lead Facebook and everyone else by at least a two to one margin. The most recent data: This past April, Friendster clocked 36 million users in Asia, versus a distant second Facebook at 18 million.
And unlike social networking… Continue Reading
Friendster, Bebo, LinkedIn all opening — aren’t waiting for OpenSocial
Friendster and Bebo are joining LinkedIn as the latest large social networks to throw open their web sites to outside developers.
Like Facebook, and a recent effort led by Google to do something similar with its “OpenSocial” project, these sites are letting third parties build applications for their pages. By recruiting other developers, the social networks are hoping to stimulate a barrage of activity — letting developers access data about users to create helpful services.
This, in… Continue Reading
Friendster launches developer platform, developers rushing in
Friendster, the social network that has been forgotten by many in the U.S., but which is thriving in Asia, is now opening its own developer platform, copying the move recently by popular site Facebook.
Third parties can build applications within Friendster, and can access the site’s user data. Other sites, from MySpace, Google to Hi5 are all planning similar moves. Friendster is letting developers start building now, but not letting the applications go live until November… Continue Reading
Friendster sees massive 40 percent page view boost in May
updated
Friendster, the early social network that stumbled badly three years ago and gave up leadership status to MySpace, Facebook and others, continues to recover — and its 40 percent page view boost last month is remarkable.
The site had 24.7 million unique users last month, according to the latest Comscore data for global traffic just released. It lags behind leaders such as MySpace and Facebook (see chart below), but it is holding its own among the… Continue Reading
Socializr, for planning events online
Socializr, a new San Francisco-based company that wants to help you plan events online, opens to the public today.
It is owned by Jonathan Abrams, the founder of the early social networking site, Friendster. When Friendster emerged four years ago, it was cutting-edge — creating enormous buzz in what is now a booming industry. Friendster badly fumbled its opportunity, though, losing its lead to MySpace and Facebook.
Now Abrams wants to make a comeback. We’ve just… Continue Reading
Tech shakeout continued: Friendster, Backfence, Insider Pages, Orb updates
Despite fallout at social networking and other Web 2.0 companies lately, its clear that the problem isn’t lack of opportunity. Many companies still see strong growth ahead.
Check out social networking veteran Friendster.
The company lost $410,000 in December, according to documents a source just slipped to VentureBeat. Revenue was a decent at $700,000, but overhead was $900,000, and other depreciation costs made up another $200,000 or so. The company’s books project monthly losses until July of… Continue Reading
The “FF class” of stock, for founders who want cash early
(Updated with more details on how FF works)
A form venture capital funding in Silicon Valley is getting increased interest from founders of start-ups.
It is called the “FF class” of stock, for founders who want to cash out a small percentage of their stake in a company so they don’t have to wait until the company is sold or goes public.
This practice is not entirely new. Many founders through the decades, including at Intuit years ago… Continue Reading
Two-timing, YouTube ruckus, French connection, the Friendster patents & more
Roundup:
Entrepreneurs who have two companies – The Mercury News has a story summarizing the exploits of the guys with two start-ups, Kevin Rose & Jay Adelson (Digg, Revision3), Scott Rafer (MyBlogLog, Mashery) and Evan Williams (Odeo, Twitter). The idea that one is not enough, because you want to hedge your bets.
Venture capitalist George Zachary, who backed Odeo, doesn’t seem impressed: “As an investor, I like to see someone who is 100 percent committed to one… Continue Reading
The woeful story of Friendster, and lessons
Gary Rivlin, of the New York Times, has just written the best overview yet of the terrific bungle of social networking company, Friendster.
Jonathan Abrams, founder of Friendster, had a great initial vision, and sparked the social networking revolution by allowing friends to hook up with others. The company had an amazing lead, and potential.
But when he took money from high-profile venture capitalists, he paid a high price: These mostly “50-year-old white guys” had their own… Continue Reading