fbpx

Why are Pinoys stuck with Friendster?

I was interviewed by PBS Mediashift associate editor Jennifer Woodard Maderazo about social networking sites and how Friendster has found its home in the hearts of millions of Filipinos (read article here: Orkut, Friendster Get Second Chance Overseas).

One of the questions she asked me (though it wasn’t included in that article) was whether Friendster had any competition for Filipino’s attention online. I replied nothing came close and even the well-funded start-up Eskwela.com didn’t made a dent.

But why? Have the online Pinoy really stuck it out with Friendster?

  • The one main reason I can think of is the first mover advantage — first come, first served. Had Orkut came out first, maybe we’re all fighting it out with the Brazilians on the top spot.
  • Everybody’s already there, so why move out? Since Friendster came out first and droves of people, friends, long lost classmates, and officemates are all in your Friend’s list, its gonna be hard moving to a new service without them in tow.
  • The Friendster clones actually helped the brand and the marketing — Prendster, Fwendz, etc. — nothing beats recall if a dozen other sites you go to reminds you of the original one.

If some people say Friendster sucks, then why haven’t the 5 Million Filipinos moved over to say Facebook or MySpace? Your guess is as good as mine.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 984 other subscribers
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.

39 Responses

  1. Avatar for Facebook user since 2009 Facebook user since 2009 says:

    so after almost 12 years, friendster is just a memory now…. RIP friendster and facebook is still growing and growing…

  2. Avatar for Setsuna F Seiei Setsuna F Seiei says:

    Friendster = fraud

    Dami online gamers trading game items using friendster as means of communication. At dahil direct contact ang mga tao sa friendster na walang security measures regarding these kinds of transaction, dami na scam ng mga nagkalat na online scammers.

    Dapat kasi kung gagamit ng communication network, hindi friendster or any social network na hindi specialized sa online trading. Dun sa isang site na nagsi serve ng security escrow gaya ng Ingamex

  3. Avatar for mAdam mAdam says:

    If it ain’t broke, why change it? Even if it is full with Friendster spam, you can still fix it here: http://friendstertips.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/how-to-stop-friendster-spam/

  4. Avatar for LA (Lalaking Alanganin) LA (Lalaking Alanganin) says:

    hoy LA AKA “Lalaking Alanganin” Feeling m0 ang taas ng antas mo gaga ka? eh BAKLA ka naman sumusupsop ng tite ng kapwa bakla hahahaha..ULOL!!!

  5. Avatar for friendsterkid friendsterkid says:

    maraming nagfrifriendster kasi nandun lahat ng friends natin e. kung magmove lahat ng friends ko sa multiply at dinelete nila account nila sa friendster, o di lipat na rin ako. siguro si LA walang friend o kaya walang gustong mag-accept sa kanyang friend request. kawawa naman si LA bakLA lol…ULOL!!!!

  6. Avatar for friendster friendster says:

    LA bakLA

  7. Avatar for michael michael says:

    Friendster was not the first social networking. It was the dating services that pioneered the social networking.

    although Friendster did not start the social networking, it was friendster who started the join free social networking concept.

    I know how hard friendster members to go to another site cause it is the site that they no of.

    I know that there are other site which are started by Filipinos. Maybe we should join those instead of friendster but sometimes we support foreigners other than our own kababayan.

    I think we should join the Filipino social networking sites to show our support to our kababayan. I am not saying we need to abandon friendster because even me i won’t abandon friendster.

    Anyway there are filipino social networking sites in the web; www.oyaye.com, www.x-overprofiles.com to name two but there are more. Joining this sites will help our Kababayan and also will give us a varitey of ways to communicate specially when friendtster is doing their maintenance.

  8. Avatar for trollnansuweegao trollnansuweegao says:

    how to teach friendster a lesson
    i will teach you guys how to teach friendster.com a lesson…

    why i do this?
    because friendster starts removing my pics, it posts only white spaces, and also removes my friends pics,…

    how?
    friendster uses pay per click advertising with Google, our aim is to tell advertisers not to advertise with friendster… so would probably result to friendster’s fall…

    step 1
    go to friendster.com

    step 2
    click on the advertisement by Google, usually two links at the bottom right… this method might increase friendster’s income temporarily since in every click gives friendster cash…

    step 3
    close the sponsors page after it is open in less than 5seconds… this will send a message to the sponsor’s page a bad Bounce Rate, meaning a bad referrer, meaning friendster is a bad site to advertise… meaning a great loss of cash for advertisers…

    step 4
    refresh friendster.com
    repeat repeat repeat repeat…

    will this work?
    probably, i just thought of this when i first heard of google ads… and hey… it’s worth to try… yes i am confident about this idea!

    will this work on other site?
    yeah! i am not sending a bad method out there,… i am just telling you this so sites may offer quality service!

    PS share this to everyone, this is effective only if a lot of people around the globe, with different IP(internet address) will cooperate

  9. Avatar for Cesar Noel Quiñon Cesar Noel Quiñon says:

    Facebook and Myspace are more fun than Friendster. I only keep an account because some of my friends are in friendster but I login more to Facebook (because of the cool apps) and Myspace ( I have friends that are bands)

  10. Avatar for nikki nikki says:

    kasi nauna na siya..

  11. Avatar for Ricky Mendez Ricky Mendez says:

    Tinamaan kasi tau sa word na FRIEND ng Friendster…lam u naman tau mga Noypi, medyo senti…

    kaibigan, friend, kapamilya, kapuso, ka-batch, classmate,…makikita mo sa Friendster? makapag-friendster nga…o kaya, yung friend mo tatanungin ka: “Me friendster ka?”, so curios ka, ano yun?

    para sa pinoy, wala arrive yung name na “Myspace”, ano yun? nasa kalawakan ka?

    “Multiply”? ano yun?, math topic? parang kakatakot a.

    FRIEND…STER? bakit hindi..

  12. Avatar for INA INA says:

    Friendster is having technical issues but still the numero uno and orignal social networking site! easy to use and not a fucking fad just like Myspace and Multiply! FUCK YOU LA

  13. Avatar for INA INA says:

    tarantado ka talaga LA! hindi friendster ang una mong account! yumabang ka lang kya lumipat ka sa Multiply! BAKLA!

  14. Avatar for AntiVaLeNtiNe AntiVaLeNtiNe says:

    kunwari ka pa L.A…foresure nagrriefriendster ka din…pasosyal effect ka pa…di bagay!!..

  15. Avatar for www.animohosting.com www.animohosting.com says:

    Filipinos are very Loyal, Kung ano ang kinagisnan dun na tayo. :)

  16. Avatar for dwek dwek says:

    For me migrating to another service is remembering another username and password, that’s why I’m wondering why other people has friendster, myspace, facebook etc… One is enough for me

  17. Avatar for thestoryofhealing thestoryofhealing says:

    Friendster works and so one stays with what works. :-)
    Thanks for this post.

  18. Avatar for thestoryofhealing thestoryofhealing says:

    Friendster works and so I stayed. Why keep moving when my purpose of keeping in touch is served? ;-) Thanks for this post, by the way.

  19. Avatar for Jay Jay says:

    freakin’ friendster

Leave a Reply
JOIN OUR TELEGRAM DISCUSSION

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *