Friendster For Sale?
I just found out that Friendster is apparently for sale when it sought help from a banker it recently commissioned to facilitate the transaction.
In my previous post, I cited some features Friendster is accelerating the excitement factor by adding features that will keep members from getting bored. These features include photo and video sharing, photo slideshows, shoutouts and Who's Viewed Me.
But while the idea is indeed very innovative, its marketing strategy seemed to be a letdown. And after a few leadership changes, it's about time to hand it over to a company which has decent background of running ailing projects.
Friendster hired Montgomery & Co. to shop for buyers. Neither parties commented on rumors. As the first popular social networking online, Friendster's initial price was thought to be 200 million dollars. That amount subsequently went down to around $50 to $100 million.
Impressions do have lasting effects and if someone whose a member tries to login and does not get a decent error message, the reputation gets tarnished a bit. And while marketing efforts did not seem to work properly, it's the network problem that presented a glaring evidence. Due to its popularity, huge traffic brought it down at times and prompted it to change its backend coding from J2EE to PHP (something that a web developer discussed in her blog before she got fired). I did not like the layout though gray has been my favorite color, and even with those customizable templates, the overall layout does not seem appealing to me at all.
But somehow, Friendster remained to be my choice social networking hub; I have five requests for contacts at hi5 which I never bothered to activate. Myspace is an intriguing proposition to me. Initially a portal for music lovers, it has grown to a full blown Friendster clone, amassing 33 million members in two years according to CNET. In contrast Friendster's unique visitors have been steadily falling, with 585,000 unique visits last September.
I have read a lot of faux messages about Friendster deactivating an account if the owner fails to forward some hidden motives veiled in a worthly messages. Old gimmicks don't die easily. Those are untrue. But even with the imminent sale of Friendster, it does not mean we are going to lose our accounts unless we violate the terms and conditions. Friendster needs each and everyone of us after all.
In my previous post, I cited some features Friendster is accelerating the excitement factor by adding features that will keep members from getting bored. These features include photo and video sharing, photo slideshows, shoutouts and Who's Viewed Me.
But while the idea is indeed very innovative, its marketing strategy seemed to be a letdown. And after a few leadership changes, it's about time to hand it over to a company which has decent background of running ailing projects.
Friendster hired Montgomery & Co. to shop for buyers. Neither parties commented on rumors. As the first popular social networking online, Friendster's initial price was thought to be 200 million dollars. That amount subsequently went down to around $50 to $100 million.
Impressions do have lasting effects and if someone whose a member tries to login and does not get a decent error message, the reputation gets tarnished a bit. And while marketing efforts did not seem to work properly, it's the network problem that presented a glaring evidence. Due to its popularity, huge traffic brought it down at times and prompted it to change its backend coding from J2EE to PHP (something that a web developer discussed in her blog before she got fired). I did not like the layout though gray has been my favorite color, and even with those customizable templates, the overall layout does not seem appealing to me at all.
But somehow, Friendster remained to be my choice social networking hub; I have five requests for contacts at hi5 which I never bothered to activate. Myspace is an intriguing proposition to me. Initially a portal for music lovers, it has grown to a full blown Friendster clone, amassing 33 million members in two years according to CNET. In contrast Friendster's unique visitors have been steadily falling, with 585,000 unique visits last September.
I have read a lot of faux messages about Friendster deactivating an account if the owner fails to forward some hidden motives veiled in a worthly messages. Old gimmicks don't die easily. Those are untrue. But even with the imminent sale of Friendster, it does not mean we are going to lose our accounts unless we violate the terms and conditions. Friendster needs each and everyone of us after all.
posted by Unknown at
1:38 PM
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