Ok, this one is just a rumor but I am doing some follow-ups based on a tip from a trusted source. According to my source, ABS-CBN might split ways with Multiply real soon.
In November 2008, ABS-CBN bought into Multiply with a 5% stake of the blogging/social network site for a reported US$5 million (~Php250 Million).
ABS-CBN was already selling local ads for Multiply then and this was strengthened by adding more Multiply sites for every show and TV program the network giant airs. The move was to help increase over-all site traffic and market share in the Philippines.
However, looking at Google Trends for Multiply in the Philippines, it didn’t seem to end that way:
Multiply had close to 250,000 daily unique visitors from the Philippines in early 2009 but slowly went down to under 150,000 by the end of the year.
By start of 2010, traffic continued to go down to just over 100,000 in the first quarter. There was a little bump around the time of elections, but continue to slide after that.
In the last 30 days, Google Trends estimated the traffic to be hanging in the 100k daily unique visitors a day. In comparison, Sulit.com.ph has more daily Philippine traffic than all of Multiply combined.
We don’t have solid reasons behind this alleged split-up but it’s possible that the steady decline in traffic in the last 18 months has something to do with it — which could have affected ad sales. This decline might have also been aggravated by the surge of Facebook users in the country with focus on Facebook Ads as the more popular platform.
I’m not also sure how ABS-CBN will settle the 5% stake with Multiply but the latter might just buy back those shares. Again, this is just a rumor but I think it’s worth further investigation. We’ll know soon enough if it’s really true.
Multiply is getting less popular. Maybe, two years, ago it became a leader in social networking with friendster as the competitor. However, when facebook made a come back last year, multiply has to suffer the decline in visitors as majority of of the people use facebook to connect to their families and friends especially for filipinos whose families are in abroad.
But as for me, I would prefer facebook over multiply even if it has a lot of privacy issues.
should be a good move hehe.
And to the guy who said in 2 years time…we can never tell if facebook will go south, with 400m plus users and growing like 65k/day registrations correct me if im wrong on my data its like going to pluto for eternity lol. Before we thought myspace would be forever, until facebook came in and topples them down along with tagged, bebo and the likes. Gmail came in years ago and we thought hotmail would be good for keeps. Seems nothing is permanent in the blogosphere
With the ads, i believe facebook ads is more targeted and its cheaper. I think it takes time to get use to it, i never liked multiply hehe. happy weekend everyone
I only use Multiply to upload my high-res photo from blog events, because I delete all those unimportant pics from my HD.
bad investment. low traffic = low ad sales.
Im a big fan of multiply, and I find it an advantage for ABS CBN buying shares om multiply.
Multiply has one of the best photo album site, very useful for pictures of ABS CBN shows.
Eventhough they got low ad sales from the Philippines, their non ad sales were high enough.
once the market has been saturated like friendster, Myspace and Multiply, Facebook will also suffer the same fate as these other SNS… unless they can create a way for people to keep on accessing their FB account.
Like creating a way to earn money, a communication platform (email or instant message perhaps) or content like news, articles blogs and not just status messages.
Other wise another site will just come in and FB will suffer the same fate like these so called Social Networks. :)
http://www.teknisyan.net
facebook and tumblr are the ones to blame
hehehehe
If my memory is correct, ABS-CBN bought into Multiply around the time Multiply was slowly declining (around the time Facebook is slowly booming).
I don’t think buying shares/ stakes on Social Networking sites is a good move; kasi ang traffic nila minsan based on popularity/fad.
Facebook? I think magdedecline din yun after 2 years or so. (I may be wrong, just my opinion :D)
Sana ABS-CBN bought in on some other well-grounded sites, like big G (Google), diba? :D
Twit, Facebook and all the new breed of social sites are what caused Multiply’s popularity to decline locally. This year their popularity has surged and people here who used to give a multiply address now give a facebook one. Just look at your commentators.
Comparing Tumblr and Multiply in Google trends, it’s more likely Tumblr will overtake Multiply maybe by the end of the year or early next year.
More and more Filipinos are using Tumblr, especially teens. The fact that you can have your own domain name and feature your own ads on it, it’s definitely more attractive than Multiply.
I can’t remember when was the lat time I logged into my Multiply.com account. It could be a year or more.
The most likely culprit would be Facebook. Ces Drilon has been mentioning the Facebook page/account for “Ako ang Simula” way before the May elections.
It cannot be helped, Multiply.com too has become yesterday’s news for Filipinos.
I wonder if you know the status of Friendster?
@Teknisyan: Couldn’t agree more.
(I thought my comments are not posted here. Got an error message earlier saying something about spam. But when I got the notification, I saw my comments posted twice. Hehe)
@AlRitch
I think that can be true, since if the account holder will earn from those ads, then they will have no problem in promoting their own multiply site.
The people who have hi traffic on multiply are those who use it as their business page, a good example of this is kim’s store.
I think if Multiply has allowed their members to put their own Google Ads, it would create more traffic. Hehehhee…
If Multiply has allowed their members to put ads on their sites, it would gain more traffic. Hehehe… (just a thought)
@abeolandres what could be the cause?
@novellware low ad sales from the Philippines?
@abeolandres or perhaps theyre inking a deal with facebook or they’re creating their own social network ;-) IDK LOL
@abeolandres oh no they shouldn’t.
@abeolandres Maybe Tumblr eclipsed Multiply locally.
Multiply has been rat-infested with Google ads lately.