Is It ‘Game Over’ For Friendster?
Among us, who would not remember Friendster? Launched in 2002, Friendster was the first major social network but when it could not handle the load of all its users it was quickly overtaken by MySpace and then Facebook. I still remember our young i-cafe customers then bragging about their increasing number of friends in Friendster while others were requesting them that they be invited as well. The more friends one had in Friendster, the more popular he was to his group.
Well, those were the days. Facebook came in and Friendster started to wane. In December 2009, it was sold to MOL Global but even a teaming up with Yahoo Southeast Asia in January last year did not help in recovering its lost glory as the Number 1 social networking site (SNS). Very soon, Friendster will soon officially cease to exist as an SNS and will become an “entertainment and fun” service focusing mainly on Asian users. It is reported that roughly 80 percent of its 116 million users live in Southeast Asia.
As part of the transformation, all photos, blogs, comments and groups are getting deleted from the site by May 31, 2011. The user’s list of friends will be preserved, along with basic profile information, wallet and games. Users that want to keep their messages, blogs and photos will need to download or export the information using an application at http://apps.friendster.com/exporter
As a saying goes, “before something untoward happen, all good things must come to an end”. Friendster will reformat then relaunch and we hope for the best to come out of it. Until then, we would not know if it’s ‘game over’ for Friendster.
I still remember those days when I posted in one of the Friendster Nurses groups that Friendster’s days are numbered and it won’t be too long before Facebook will consume all their members. Alas, I guess it right.
I think that Friendster, and other “alternative” social networks, spent too much energy trying to be similar to Facebook instead to try to be different. This tranfomation will make Friendster loose a lot of it’s users (having to move all your photos is not a thing one forgive easily) but what the new Friendster will offer to attract new users?
I fear it’s really game over for them.
This is a survivor’s world; all the weaks that continue to remain weak are taken out of the competition and that’s what happened with Friendster.
I don’t often visit my friendster account but when I do it kinda make me smile since I get to read on the testimonials of my friends on me which are rather sincere. I am also thankful for friendster since it is there where I started blogging.
Hmmm.. I’m gonna miss the site for sure. I hope the new platform would be fun.