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Friendster to be acquired for $100 Million

Reuters is reported last Friday that Friendster will be acquired by end of December for a nice sum of $100 Million. The buyer is an Asian publicly listed firm but was not named.

friendsterCoincidentally, Friendster also launched their new website with a new logo and design last Friday. It makes sense that an Asian company would buy Friendster, considering that majority of the 100 Million Friendster users are from this part of the region.

Besides, the dynamics of social networking in Asia is a bit different that in the west. In Japan, it’s Mixi; in Korea, it’s CyWorld; and in China, QQ is huge (made $500+ million dollars in 2007 alone). In the Philippines, Friendster is still a strong contender next to Facebook. Friendster gets a significant share in online ad spending in the Philippines. Smart and a number of call center companies are big advertisers on Friendster. It also has GCash for online remittance (big on OFWs).

Friendster is shifting its monetization strategy from advertising to micro-transactions — buying and sending virtual gifts to friends. This model has worked great for Cyworld and QQ so hopefully, Friendster would do good as well.

Here’s a presentation by Benjamin Joffe, Managing Director at Asia Internet consultancy +8* and Co-Founder of MobileMonday Beijing, during last year’s Media 08 event:

Friendsters’ $100 million price tag might be small change compared to Facebook’s $10 billion valuation, but at least it’s already cashing in. I remember Google wanting to buy Friendster for $30 million back in the 2003.

{via Reuters}

Update: It’s official, Malaysian company MOL buys Friendster for undisclosed sum:

Hello,

I’d like to share the following news from Friendster.

Friendster has just announced that it has been acquired by MOL Global Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of leading online payment solutions provider MOL AccessPortal Berhad based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Friendster and MOL Global have entered into a definitive agreement under which MOL Global will acquire 100% of Friendster, Inc. Following the acquisition, the operations of MOL and Friendster will be combined to create Asia’s largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network, pairing MOL’s offline retail channel partners and payment platform with Friendster’s large online footprint, social network and user community in Asia.

This release is currently being distributed and syndicated throughout the US, Southeast Asia, and globally.

Thanks!
Jeff Roberto
Director, Global Product

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

36 Responses

  1. Avatar for Corrina Danley Corrina Danley says:

    I have found out a lot reading this article. Definitely great info here. Posts including this help make this site worth coming back to for more material.

  2. Avatar for nic nic says:

    obviously, kaya naging hit ang FB sa mga Pinoy e dahil madaming tao gustong maki-sunod sa uso.
    ;P

  3. Avatar for Friendster For Sale (FFS) Friendster For Sale (FFS) says:

    friendster user ako dati, una sa lahat kasi un lng nmn ang nagustuhan kong socail networking site saka majority ng classmates ko gumagamit nun. pero ngayon, facebook user na ako, i rarely open my fs account nowadays. mas IN na kasi ngaun ang facebook. willing pa sna ako imaintain ang fs ko, kaso ung speed nung site, ang bagal. malabo nmn net ko lng may problem kung sa ibang site ang bilis with Broadband connection. nung nabalitaan ko na nagbago na ng looks ang FS, i opened mine.. pero sadyang nawalan n tlga ako ng gana sa FS.. onti n lng ksi ang gumagamit nun sa mga friends ko tapos un nga mabagal ung site and mas entertaining and interactive ang facebook. pero kahit FB fan ako, i still respect FS. connection ko pa din ang FS ko sa ibang friends ko.

  4. Avatar for adjie kuriu adjie kuriu says:

    ay oo nga sbgay… tama ka diyan. pero syempre pra skin, mas gusto ko FB kaysa FS. dinedepensahan k olng nmn FS kasi db… user din ako dati. until now. ni hindi ko na nga nadadalaw. cguro about 3 times lng a month. tsaka sa FB, tanging kakilala mo lng tlga ang maari mong i-add at mka-add syo. unlike FS, random people ang mag-aadd sayo. tsaka dmi posers don. mga pretentious people. un lng.. Happy Holidays guys! (n.n)

  5. Avatar for Chan Chan says:

    para sakin okay Facebook sakin, kasi sa Friendster, hindi mo na madistinguish kung sino yung user na yun dahil pati pangalan naka costumize gamit yung ASCII codes. Sana kasi real name ang gamit nila eh.

  6. Avatar for adjie kuriu adjie kuriu says:

    pra sa akin, ung mga etchosera diyan, mga pasosyal kasi FACEBOOK users daw sila kono… eh prang di kayo nag Friendster. Ang tanong, nung lumabas ba ang Facebook sa Europe and States nkasunod ba kaagad ang mga Filipino na gumawa ng account don? hnd nmn db? syempre nkigaya tyong makisali sa FB kasi umuuso na world wide. Alanagan nmn magpahuli tyo. eh ang mga pilipino kilala yan sa pagiging pasosyal. haha… xD

    bka nga kpag myspace nmn ang umusbong sa pilipinas, lahat na ng pilipino malamang magsisilipatan narin o di nmn kaya gagawa narin sila ng account. ung iba mga trying hard sa pag twitter, eh hnd nmn sila nababagay don masabi lng na “I have twitter account, too. Follow me, alright?” bongga db?

    ay sows! some might have blogger account just to say they are really blogging random stuffs.. what a shame! mga social climber tlga.

    good luck! haha.. xD

  7. Avatar for chill chill says:

    facebook is much more interactive but hey meron na rin farm ang friendster! kala nyo facebook lang meron huh! hehe

  8. Avatar for turon turon says:

    Bad or good? I hope that Friendster will be succesful this time.

  9. Avatar for The Teknisyan The Teknisyan says:

    I’d still go for friendster… considering they’re the one who pioneered the Social networking sites, that Myspace, Facebook are adopting. What lacks is the trust system, since there are a lot of issus concerning Friendster like private profile that can be hacked, the so called Friendster virus and more. But I’m still keeping my friendster account and trying to resist in making or opening a FB account. Since I don’t see the need to change provider.

    In related news: http://teknisyan.blogspot.com/2009/12/tech-news-of-week-12012009-12062009.html

  10. Avatar for Ron Ron says:

    My advice to the owner of Friendster… don’t be a moron and refuse this offer. Take this now and leave the poor Friendster to someone who is also a moron, who is willing to acquire a site that is in the verge of falling down. HAHAHA!

  11. Avatar for loadex loadex says:

    Sobrang dami siguro ng pera ng ASIAN firm na bibili ng friendster for $100M.. when everybody is almost on facebook.

    Do they see something that the current owners don’t see?

    Or the Asian firm is a dummy of either Google, FB and Myspace.. and eventually folding up with any of the 3 after a year?

    Friendster still holds a huge Asian Market which Orkut, Myspace and even FB can easily add to their own data base kung sila nga behind the Asian firm.

    But I might be wrong!

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