Online Personals Watch

Friendster's Third Patent

PR NEWSWIRE -- Mar 15 -- Friendster (40 million members) was awarded a patent titled, "System and Method for Managing Connections in an Online Social Network"( U.S. Patent No. 7,188,153 B2). The third in a growing portfolio of patents granted to Friendster, highlighting the company's innovation in online social networking. Specifics disclosed in the patent include adding friends, personalizing your profile through arranging, ordering and classifying connections made in an online community, and managing these connections at will. Said VP Marketing, David Jones, "Friendster laid the groundwork upon which online social networking is built. This validates and protects our heritage as a pioneer." In July '06, Friendster was awarded its first U.S. patent illustrating and describing how people are connected in the context of an online social network titled, "A System, Method and Apparatus for Connecting Users in an Online Computer System Based on Their Relationships within Social Networks" ( U.S. Patent No. 7,069,308). In October 2006, Friendster received a second U.S. patent which discloses the process of enriching other user's profiles with text, video, pictures and additional content titled, "Method of Inducing Content Uploads in a Social Network" (U.S. Patent No. 7,117,254). FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Friendster Makes Google Ad and Search Supplier

REUTERS -- Mar 7 -- The plan calls for text and display advertising to run on Friendster members' (~37 million registered users in ~75 countries) personal profile sites, worldwide, and the company will introduce Google Web search across the site in the second quarter of 2007. The deal replaces a prior search deal with Yahoo. Four out of five of Friendster's top markets are in Southeast Asia: Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia rank No. 1, 2 and 3. The United States is fourth, while Singapore is fifth. 45% of Friendster's audience is in Asia now. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Community Next Notes

OPW -- Feb 21 --  On Saturday 10th February I attended Community Next in Silicon Valley, CA. Here are a few keypoints I picked up from the day of speakers which included the founders of Dogster, Hi5, Mychurch, PlentyofFish, HotorNot, and Userplane. - Mark Brooks

People will gather online around 'social objects' i.e. pictures (Flickr), bookmarks (Delicious), friends (Friendster).

Loopt offers location based services on phones. Mark suggested that the mobile platform is more appealing than the PC because it's 'Always Available.'

Threadless makes $15 million a year from community designed tshirt sales. One of the secrets of their success is they listen to members and make changes quickly. Side projects include ExtraTasty, NakedandAngry and IParkLikeAnIdiot. Start your site with minimal rules and then add rules to the community later on. Be evolutionary. Make frequent small incremental changes. 

The Dogster Founders recommended choosing appropriate advertisers and building campaigns around them that truly engage users. Don't be deceptive, ever! Write your advertisers copy. Offer something special to users. 

Currently MyChurch has 2700 church groups signed up. There are more churches than schools in the U.S.A. (300k) and Americans donate $88 billion a year in tithings. There are 88k Christian groups on Y! groups, and 82k on MySpace. 

Danah Boyd was not a speaker but was quoted as follows... "Community is a garden, tend it well."

From the final panel:
The Suicide Girls name was inspired by a book written by the author of Fight Club. Presently, their fastest growing revenue generator is from merchandising. 

PlentyofFish contrasted executive opinion on the final panel on two points.  Markus believes that advertising is actually very important in building an online community.  Other speakers (HororNot, Fark, Hi5, Slide, Suicide Girls) did not.  Markus stated that 'passion' is not as important as 'cold hard analytics skills.' Other speakers believed that passion for the site was their primary success factor.

James Hong of HotorNot suggested that being an entrepreneur was like volunteering to be bipolar. 

Fark was started when Drew Curtis put up a photo for 18 months of a squirrel with big nuts. Fark nearly ended up as a curry recipe site, but Drew decided to focus it on to focus on listing 'things you're ashamed you laughed at.' He's still the sole employee and maxim sells advertising for the site now. 

Slide has 50 employees and is not profitable yet. It's founded by Paypal co-founder Max Levchin.

Friendster's Future Depends on its Philippine Team

MANILA TIMES -- Nov 12 -- Joseph Ross Lee, 26 years old, is currently Friendster's Philippine team chief; a group of young enterprising IT specialists engaged in maintaining and jump-starting the site's online services. There are millions of Filipino Friendster users. Friendster's Philippine team was responsible for initiating the site's online services that include Classifieds.Friendster.com, Friendster Mobs, Friendster Flowers, Friendster Fads and just recently Friendster Groups. FULL ARTICLE @ MANILA TIMES

Mark Brooks: Orkut is huge in Brazil and India. PlentyofFish is 'the' dating site in Canada these days.  BlackPlanet is the community of choice for black America.

More Patent Nonsense

MV BLOG -- Oct 20 -- Marc Canter - Can somebody explain to me how Friendster can get a patent on something everyone was doing - at the time?  Whatever happened to prior art? FULL ARTICLE @ MARC'S VOICE BLOG

Mark Brooks: Friendster (Jonathan Abrams) did it different, and better.

How Friendster Lost Chance for a Jackpot

NY TIMES -- Oct 16 -- Jonathan Abrams, Friendster's founder was in a spot in late 2003. He could take the safe bet and accept $30 million from Google for Friendster or sell a stake for $13 million and build Friendster into an online powerhouse worth hundreds of millions, if not billions. Abrams spurned Google and charted his own course. In retrospect, he should have taken the $30 million. If Google had paid him in stock, Abrams would be worth $1 billion today. "Basically, Jonathan wanted to meet girls," said Mark Pincus, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who provided Abrams with seed money at the end of 2002. "He told me himself, he started Friendster as a way to surf through his friends' address books for good-looking girls."  Doerr and Kagle took seats on Friendster's board, as did investors, former Yahoo CEO, Timothy Koogle, Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, and Ram Shriram, one of the first investors in Google. Abrams casts the board as the main cause of Friendster's stumble. Abrams has vowed never to accept another dime in venture capital.  "Friendster ended up with three levels of VPs, CEOs and board members who, although they had great résumés, were not connected to the social networking concept and didn't really use Friendster," [an insider commented].  Siegelman, one of Doerr's partners at Kleiner Perkins, said Abrams was a founder in way over his head, which is why in April 2004, only a few months after investing in the company, the board replaced him as CEO. FULL ARTICLE @ IHT.COM

Mark Brooks: I was fortunate enough to be one of Jonathan's group of friends that he called on to help him with Friendster in 2003. Kicking Jonathan out, big mistake. He was overwhelmed with it's growth, and he wasn't as smooth as an Alexa 100 internet CEO might be, but he knew every nuance of Friendster and why it was successful. Some parallel's can be drawn with the success of Markus Frind of PlentyofFish. I talk with Markus every few days now, and every time we talk he's received more calls from VC's wanting to invest. But, he refuses to accept funding or grow his team beyond a one man band. Some would argue he should grow it into a company worth hundred of millions. He would argue...he is...his way. It's the antithesis of the approach Jonathan took. I'm sure he'd be inspired by it.

TRUE Teams up With Friendster

PR NEWSWIRE -- Oct 10 -- The multi-year agreement with Friendster allows TRUE to offer Friendster members online dating. The Friendster Web site will now host a co-branded "Love" page, with content provided by TRUE that includes member profiles, and dating tips and advice. Friendster also will integrate TRUE profiles in its People Section and its People Search result pages. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Mark Brooks: TRUE has been courting Friendster and advertising with them for a while. This is a good fit.  Congrats. 

Facebook User Uproar

OPW -- Sep 7 -- Facebook added an RSS feed that informs members when their friends' pages are updated, e.g. when they add new photos and join new groups. ~500,000 of Facebook's 9 million users were peeved enough to petition the company to do away with the new feature. Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, thinks the protesters are reacting irrationally. "Nothing you do is being broadcast," he wrote. "Rather, it is being shared with people who care about what you do--your friends."  But this ignores the reality of how members actually use the sites. Obviously, many users feel that quietly adding a new friend's picture to a profile is different from announcing that they've added that picture.

Mark Brooks: Friendster sends out periodic notifications highlighting when my friends have added new pictures.  That's the main notification feature most users would want. 

Friendster to Get a $10 Million Boost

CNN MONEY.COM -- Aug 21 -- Friendster is expected to announce today a $10 million round of VC funding from AG Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Benchmark Capital. Kent Lindstrom, president, says the money will go towards investing in new technology, market research and the creation of new features. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN MONEY.COM

TrueDater; True or False Profiles

STAR LEDGER -- Aug 7 -- People can post reviews of their dates on TrueDater.com and also plug in a prospective date to see if anyone else has posted a comment about the person. More than a half million people have used TrueDater since the site launched last year. TreuDater staffers monitor the remarks.  Mark Brooks, onlinepersonalswatch.com, said "I think it answers a definite need in the online dating market."  Brooks said Friendster allows people to write testimonials about a date, but the person being reviewed has to approve it, "so nothing negative gets in." Brooks said TrueDater is the kind of site that makes people think more about their reputation, which is a new issue in online dating. Marcus Frind, founder of plentyoffish.com said both men and women are equally guilty when it comes to fudging profiles. "With women, it's weight; for men, it's height. A third party (giving an assessment) is the simplest way to go."  "You have to be honest," said Moreno, Ph.D. student in social psychology at Rutgers University. "The picture is the hook, it gets you in. You see a cute picture and you click on it. I met one guy for dinner a couple of weeks ago and his picture resembled him, but you would not have been able to pick him out of a crowd based on his picture."  Moreno suggested singles should not upload their best shot. That way dates can be pleasantly surprised on the first meeting. Eric Straus, president of Cupid.com, said "I don't think it adds all that much to the process," he said. "People tend to exaggerate and I think that's the nature of the beast." FULL ARTICLE @ NJ.COM

Social Networking Gone Bad

DARK READING -- Aug 2 -- MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Friendster, are susceptible to SQL injection attacks. SQL injection-type attacks can do a lot more damage than a worm or adware: They could provide an attacker with access to a social networking site's entire database, for instance, says David Aitel, CTO of Immunity. "Every site is based on PHP in the front and MySQL in the back," he says. "As you sign up and fill in a form or login, if the site isn't doing the proper check of characters, an attacker could insert a SQL command and get access to all usernames" or other data about MySpace, he says. Social networking sites don't collect the type of personal data big-time hackers crave -- social security numbers, credit-card numbers, and bank account data. But they could be used to stage an attack on that data. "MySpace could be used to get a dropper Trojan on a machine and set up a stakeout post," Cole says. "When the user goes to his or her corporate site, it would go ahead and steal his login credentials."  Or if a user gets infected on LinkedIn, for example, his banking information could be stolen when he does online banking.  FULL ARTICLE @ DARK READING

Mark Brooks: Really? Your comments please.

Friendster Patent on Linking

WSJ.COM -- July 27 -- Friendster could wind up making enemies among its peers. Last month it was awarded a patent related to searching for people online based on their relationships and it expects another patent to come through soon that covers technology that lets users upload their own content, like photos, onto a friend's page. "We want to protect our intellectual property," says Kent Lindstrom, Friendster's president. "We're evaluating what we should do. The attorneys we've talked to say the patent is very strong." Lawyers are encouraging Friendster to consider "taking people out from a litigation standpoint." But he says he is also weighing less extreme approaches, like asking for patent-licensing fees or not taking any legal action at all.  Friendster is overhauling its management team and has modified its strategy. FULL ARTICLE @ WSJ.COM

Mark Brooks: I'm looking forward to seeing Friendster make a comeback with Kent at the helm. Kent was one of the original investors and earliest advisor to Jonathan, from when he was still working out of his apartment.

Friendster Strengthens Executive Team

PR NEWSWIRE -- July 27 -- Friendster today announced the appointment of Aaron Barnes to VP Sales (Quote.com, WhenU, Looksmart), Chander Sarna to VP engineering and operations (Siebel Systems, Greenlight.com, Netscape, Intel), and Josh Hannah to its board of directors (Benchmark Capital).  Friendster recently reached an all-time high on Alexa.com with a sub-30 ranking. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

MatchActivity Launches

JAVA SCRIPT SEARCH -- July 10 -- MatchActivity lets singles plan activites together. First, setting the time and place of an event, and then finding people with similar interests. Post an Activity, Respond, Meet.  MatchActivity team defines their mission: "Our vision is to change how people meet online and date offline. We believe that an activity date provides the best structure and context for a first time meeting." FULL ARTICLE @ JAVA SCRIPT SEARCH

Mark Brooks: Observe the real world, bottle it, improve on it slightly. That's what I observe Jonathan Abrams do masterfully in 2003 with the creation of Friendster. You can't change people's behaviors, just give them a means to improve on what they are already doing. I've been working on ace-club since 1998. Singles, real world events...very tough. I hitched Cupid.com up with Predating.com in 2004. The marriage is working nicely. We weren't trying to change people. There's a need for more singles events.  Singles, online daters, need to occasionally pry themselves away from the computer and go and meet 20 new people in one night. Even if they don't meet a new partner, they're having a good time and doing something that's good for the soul. Meeting, partying. 

Friendster Awarded Social Networking Patent

CNET NEWS -- July 7 -- Troubled Friendster has been awarded a broad patent covering social networking that could cover activities of rival sites. The U.S. patent, which was awarded June 27, is extremely general, and would seem to cover the activities of many other sites, especially those like LinkedIn that allow people to connect within a certain number of degrees of separation. Asked whether Friendster would sue, President Kent Lindstrom said "It's way too early to say...We'll do what we can to protect our intellectual property." FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS

Mark Brooks: Founder Jonathan Abrams applied for this patent early on. 

Social Networking Websites Target NZ Teens in Turf Battle

STUFF -- June 4 -- Bebo.com is beating MySpace hands-down in New Zealand and giving it a run for its money in Britain. Other popular teen sites include WeeWorld.com, Friendster.com, Tagged.com, Xanga.com and Orkut.com. Oldfriends.co.nz ranked at 8th position. Benchmark Capital just put $US15 million ($NZ24 million) into Bebo. Product placements on social networking sites which was too brash or uncool could risk destroying a community. The problem of getting younger teenagers to pay for online content – where they did not have access to parents' credit cards – can be solved by rolling out pre-paid credit cards. FULL ARTICLE @ STUFF

Friendster Raises $3.1 Million

SILICON BEAT -- May 25 -- Friendster's original investors Kleiner Perkins and Benchmark have reset the company's value, and invested $3.1 million (in what is called a recapitalization). Friendster will release some more online features and a revised home page. Friendster will give users a way to know when their friends have added new photos, written new blog postings or changed their profile and will also make its site searchable by Google and other search engines for those members that choose to make their profiles public. FULL ARTICLE @ SILICONBEAT

Mark Brooks: These tweaks may help tip a little more viral activity. Friendster has suffered from feature creep of late and needs a usability overhaul. 

Friendster Tries For A Comeback

YAHOO NEWS -- May 19 -- Friendster has new architecture and is preparing to launch an instant messaging service. With more than 27 million page views, the company nearly tripled performance and page views in about one month. The improved performance has also enabled increased advertising and revenue. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Top 15 Social Networking Sites

COURIER POST ONLINE -- May 16 -- 1. MySpace 75.6% market share, 2. TheFaceBook 8.3%, 3. Xanga 7.3%, 4. MSN Spaces 1.8%, 5. Yahoo! 360 1.4%, 6. hi5 1.4%, 7. Tagged 1.3%, 8. Sconex 1.1%, 9. Bebo 0.7%, 10. Friendster 0.6%, 11. TagWorld 0.2%, 12. CrushSpot 0.2%, 13. Bolt 0.1%, 14. XuQa 0.1%, 15. VidLife 0.1%. FULL ARTICLE @ COURIER POST ONLINE

MySpace's Meteoric Growth Might be its Own Undoing

STAR TELEGRAM -- May 14 -- "It got too fake," 18 year old Summer Stoker said. "You have all these people saying they want to be your friend. It's just a waste of time." MySpace is the third most-visited Web site in the country after Yahoo and Google, according to Alexa. Some say MySpace's fast growth is destroying the site's sense of community, and a host of competitors hope to take advantage of the possible fallout. Why did Friendster fizzle? Friendster was slow to respond to what users wanted, such as the ability to incorporate media into their profile. Friendzy.com was an all-purpose social-networking site that attracted more than 50,000 members in six months. "We poured $600,000 into Friendzy without having a completed business plan," Chang said. "I was a little naive." Of the many networks still striving for a future, three appear to have arisen as potentially sustainable businesses. MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook. FULL ARTICLE @ STAR TELEGRAM

Mark Brooks: ...and Bebo, and hi5, and Piczo.  Ryze is doing ok.

Friendster Finds No Love

THE DEAL -- May 4 -- Several companies that initially expressed interest in buying Friendster were reluctant to take on the company's ~$6 million debt and balked at the modest $10 million asking price.  'Friendster unfortunately was losing money and losing market share, and that's not a great dynamic.'  In September Friendster 2.0 launched, emulating features offered by competitors.  The upgrade stanched the bleeding. As of March, Friendster had 1.1 million U.S. uniques, up 9% from 975,000 visitors in March 2005. MySpace had 41.9 million unique users, and Facebook had 12.9 million uniques.

Uniques (millions) to selected social networking sites, March 2006 (comScore Media Metrix) - MYSPACE.COM 42,  FACEBOOK.COM 13,  XANGA.COM 7, LIVEJOURNAL.COM 4,  Yahoo! 360° 4,  MYYEARBOOK.COM 4,  HI5.COM 3, TAGWORLD.COM 2,  TAGGED.COM 2,  BEBO.COM 1,  FRIENDSTER.COM 1,  Tribe Networks .9, 43THINGS.COM .7,  SCONEX.COM .4,  Total Internet audience: 171 million.  FULL ARTICLE @ THE DEAL

Mark Brooks: Jonathan Abrams knew Friendster would do well.  He just didn’t quite expect its growth to be meteoric.  It was a victim of its own success and deserves a second chance.  Friendster 2.0 is delightfully feature rich but the GUI needs a revamp. 

Ultimate List of Dating Industry Jobs

May 4 -- I'm rolling the list of internet dating, social networking and business networking industry jobs links into a handy little list.  Please let me know if you have any new links for the list by emailing me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com.  Thanks.  - Mark

CommunityConnect
Cupid
Facebook
Friendfinder
Friendster
Hi5
Lavalife
Match
Mate1
Meetup
MySpace
PerfectMatch
PlanetOut/Gay
Shaadi
Spark Networks
Webdate
Yahoo Personals

Microsoft Gets Social

BUSINESS WEEK -- Apr 14 -- Social search is a way of making Web search more relevant by incorporating the preferences of like-minded surfers. Microsoft will unveil a Q & A social-search tool in the coming months allowing users to direct questions to friends, rather than get automated results from a generic search engine. Eurekster combines search, though a partnership with Yahoo, with information culled from social-networking sites, such as Friendster.com. A Friendster user searching for "skin care" gets results that reflect community reviews and preferences.  FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

Friendster Implements Akamai

BUSINESS WIRE -- Apr 11 -- Friendster, with more than 27.5 million users, implements Akamai's content delivery and managed storage services to improve site performance, page download times and avoid the need to buy additional costly infrastructure.  RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: Recently I still heard complaints about Friendster's page loading speed.  Hopefully Akamai/Internap can help solve this longstanding problem.

Christian Alternative to 'MySpace'

PR WEB -- Mar 28 -- XIANZ.COM is a Christian based social networking site (by invitation only) that offers the same functionality as sites like MySpace.com, Facebook.com, and Friendster.com. Settings can be specified that allow only people of the same age range to communicate.  Features include: Customized profiles with photos, video and music, private and instant messaging, online Blogs, personal message boards, birthday reminders & invites, shared interests, friends lists & shout outs, groups, events and listings. A large music module will be integrated in the next few weeks.  RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: I've not seen a Christian social network yet.  Makes sense. But what a funky name.  Doesn't lend itself well to word of mouth.  I added it to the social networks list.  A friend tried creating Craigslist for Christians, JoinGod.com, last year but didn't get it to critical mass (Alexa rank) and got busy with other projects.

Best Way to Date: Collaborate?

collaboradate  WIRED NEWS -- Mar 17 -- Collaboradate does for online dating what Trillian does for instant messaging: It combines multiple services so you can manage everything from one place.  When you create your Collaboradate profile, you enter the user names you registered at other dating and social networking sites. Then when someone searches Collaboradate and finds you, she can click through each site on your list to view your dating profiles.  If the external dating site requires membership to view profiles, she'll have to sign in. But if it doesn't -- like Yahoo Personals, Friendster and MySpace -- she can see your page immediately.  Andy believes the subscription model for dating is doomed, and suggests that Collaboradate will be a positive force for online dating as a whole.  FULL ARTICLE @ WIRED NEWS

Mark Brooks: Paid subscriptions help sort out the more committed online daters.  When you're paying $20-$50 a month, your attention is pretty much ensured.  I'd like to see more sites where ONLY paid members are visible and can play. 

Social Networking: Good business?

CMP NET ASIA -- Mar 15 -- Friendster has 24 million members and 9 million unique visitors a month. After three years, LinkedIn has 5 million subscribers and believes that number will reach 8 to 10 million by the end of the year. "We're expecting to reach profitability this month," says VP Konstantin Guericke. Adrian Scott, CEO and founder of business social networking site Ryze.com, claims his site, with six employees and 400,000 users, has been profitable for several years.  FULL ARTICLE @ CMP NET ASIA

Mark Brooks: It took several years for online dating to become profitable. Social networking was primed in 1999, born again in 2003 and should be profitable this year. 

Friendster Account Leads to Arrest of Murder Suspect

INQ7 -- Mar 10 -- On Thursday, operatives arrested a suspect who allegedly shot dead four people in San Pablo City two months ago.  Rexson Hizon, 27, was positively identified by a survivor of the attack, based on pictures posted on the suspect's Friendster account.  Hizon's Friendster account showed him holding a revolver which fitted Belen's description of one of the guns used in the killing.  FULL ARTICLE @ INQ7

Ultimate List of Social Networks

Mar 13 -- I'm starting a list of social networking sites.  Notable social networks with good traffic.  Here's the starter list.  What am I missing?

U.S.A. - Bebo, Facebook, Flickr (pics), Friendster, Hi5, MOG, MSN Spaces, MySpace, MyYearBook, Orkut, Piczo, Sconex, Tagworld, Tribe, WAYN, Xuqa, Yahoo 360, Zorpia

Business Networks - CollectiveX (for groups), Guanxi (China), Ryze (USA), Tianji (China)

Beyond USA - Arto.dk (Denmark), ASmallWorld (Euro), Cyworld (South Korea), Epuls.pl (Poland), EveryonesConnected (UK), Faceparty (UK), Fropper (India), Grono (Poland), Hyves (Netherlands), IRC Galleria (Finland), Mixi (Japan), Nexopia (Canada), Passado (Euro), Playahead (Sweden), ProfileHeaven (UK), Rate.ee (Estonia), Yeeyoo (China), Yeskee (China), Yonja (Turkey)

Niche - Dogster (uh, dogs!?!), Golfspinner (Golfers), Joga (Soccer), Xianz (Christians), Zaadz (Change the World)

Anti-Social Networks - Isolatr, Snubster

Myspace Add-ons - Blingboo, Coshed, Gotomyproile, Modmyprofile, Myspacehive, Zobbler

New Sites - Dogears.net (US Universities), Palopia (students), Panjea (music, media player)

Friendster Radio Powered by Pandora Launches in US

PR NEWSWIRE -- Mar 6 -- Friendster today announced that its users can now build online radio stations powered by Pandora's Music Genome Project and share them with their friends.  Friendster Radio taps into Pandora's Music Genome Project, recently lauded by Rolling Stone magazine, to develop radio stations based on an individual's favorite artists or songs. The playlists are based on the Music Genome Project's exhaustive analysis of thousands of songs across hundreds of musical attributes. Friendster users build radio stations that can be shared, evolve, and even become 'hits' on Friendster.  RELEASE @ YAHOO

theglobe.com Subsidiary "TGLO" Announces Overlay of Social Networks with VoIP

BUSINESS WIRE -- Feb 10 -- Users of MySpace® and Friendster® can now visit tglophone and instantly be enabled for free peer to peer calling to all their social network friends.  Community users can now "click to call" any friend. The service allows members of the MySpace® and Friendster® communities to download a browser helper application which adds "click to call" capabilities to any of the friends in their social networks.  RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: Downloading it now.  I'll post my findings shortly...

Social Networking Site MySpace is Latest Online Darling

ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Feb 13 -- "It's like being at a giant music conference 24 hours a day every day," said Greg McIntosh, 27, guitarist for Ann Arbor-based 'Myth Society.' College students can rate their professors and find classmates or alumni. Others play games, view classified ads, send online party invitations or rate the brave on how "hot" they are.  Instead of using e-mail and instant messaging, Olszanowski keeps in touch with many friends simply by posting bulletins on her personal MySpace page/profile. Friends can send her a private message or post a public comment, see her photo album or read her blog.  CEO, DeWolfe said Myspace.com has worked with WiredSafety to create guidelines and improve practices - dozens of employees now monitor profiles and images 24 hours a day - and encourages parents to talk with their kids about online safety.  The site gets as many as 180,000 new members a day and has 54 million users, compared with 24 million for Friendster.  FULL ARTICLE @ FOX NEWS

Google to Buy Friendster?

SILICON BEAT -- Feb 10 -- We've heard a nasty rumor that Google has put out a bid out for Friendster.  Google made a $30 million bid for Friendster back in 2003 and were spurned by Friendster when the start-up chose to take $13 million in venture capital from Kleiner Perkins and Benchmark instead.  FULL ARTICLE @ SILICON BEAT

Mark Brooks: Someone please give Friendster a good home and save it.  I worked with Friendster in 2003 before starting my little consultancy, and am still shocked they were 'outfriendstered' by MySpace and Facebook.  So near, and yet so far.  They could have been worth $500 million by now.  Coulda, woulda, shoulda...what's next in this saga?  Can Friendster scratch back a decent position?  Friendster hit the 'connectors' at the point of curiosity.  But, curiosity killed the cat...it wasn't enough.  MySpace hit the 'connectors' at their point of passion, music...and went one step further by empowering them with more means of customising their 'space.'  Facebook hit the connectors at their point of pain, fear of loss of contact with their valuable alumni network.  Facebook has the highest integrity network and represents the biggest 'threat' to the online dating market. 

Filipinos Increasingly Seeking Love Online

INQ7.NET -- Feb 04 --  "Unlike the social networking service by Friendster, our goal is to allow people to find love," said Mary Ann Go, marketing head of Philippine-based matchmaking website Itzamatch.com, said. Additional investments amounting to 450,000 dollars are being poured into Itzamatch.com this year.  The company aims to hit 250,000 members in February 2007.  Friendster Philippines, through Philippine partner Pusit.com, has also recently disclosed plans to start selling "Friendster Flowers" to Filipino users, according to Terence Pua, founder of Pusit.com.  To date, there are five million Filipinos on Friendster.  FULL ARTICLE @ INQ7.NET

The Internet's New Social Order

THE NEWS FACTOR -- JAN 26 -- Web sites specifically built to put people in touch with one another -- are booming in terms of participation and new services. Whether you are looking for social chatter, dating, gaming, or networking with other professionals, the Internet has the forum for it, and it has become both easy and fast to acquaint yourself with like-minded people. The communities are becoming so popular that some wonder whether they could fundamentally alter the way humans interact with each other. In addition to the networking behemoth MySpace, which currently has 47.3 million members, there's Friendster, The Well, Tribe Networks, and Bebo. Smaller sites that specialize in just a few topics are springing up, too, like Yelp, an online community devoted to chat about local watering holes and entertainment.  Dating online seems even easier thanks to aggressive recruitment efforts by sites like eHarmony and Match.com; both claim eight million and credit for thousands of marriages.  FULL ARTICLE @ NEWS FACTOR

Friendster Philippines Gives Preview of Pre-paid Online Ads

INQ7.NET -- Jan 22 -- Friendster Philippines has quietly launched its new service for Filipinos to post text-based advertising.  fads.friendster.com  FULL ARTICLE @ INQ7.NET

Mark Brooks: Friendster meets Craiglist...in the Phillipines.  Friendster has enormous traction in the Phillipines.  Orkut is big in Brazil. 

Userplane Enhances Award-Winning Webchat and Webmessenger

BUSINESS WIRE -- Jan 18 -- Userplane Webchat Version 1.8.7 features streaming audio and video (through Flash MX), mini-profiles, a user photo, and an overall usable and flexible Flash interface.  The new version allows for full support of unlimited user video streams, integrated chat history display, advanced user and administrative block and ban functions, and site-administered room alerts.  In addition, Userplane has significantly improved security functions and will soon offer advertising revenue-sharing to clients.  Userplane's Webmessenger 1.8.11 include a much-requested skinning feature allowing full color and icon customization, advanced notification of accepted and rejected IMs, and a resizable interface. This Flash instant messaging tool provides live text and audio/video instant
messaging.  "There is a lot more to come - 2006 will be an exciting year for us," CEO Michael Jones said.  "Look for a range of new partnerships and developments that will enable us to expand our features, to drive exciting user experiences and additional revenue for our users and partners."  Recent
clients include: Date.com, Friendster, Honda, and Red Bull.  RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: Mike knows how to look after his customers and is a pleasure to work with. 

Social Networking for Man's Best Friend

CNET NEWS -- Jan 11 -- Social networking Web sites are all the rage these days. Sites such as Friendster, MySpace, Facebook and others allow users to create little corners of the Internet that are all their own.  On Dogster, which won the 2005 Webby Award in the community category, Web savvy humans take a back seat to their lovable companions.  FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS

Mark Brooks: So what's Dogster worth?

No Deep-Pocketed Friends For Friendster

WEB PRO NEWS -- Jan 11 -- PaidContent has reported that Friendster, which once fancied itself a $200 million outfit, can't even get a bite on a $5 million price tag. The report claimed Viacom took a glance at Friendster and decided that $5 million was far too much to pay.  It costs more than that a year to operate.  FULL ARTICLE @ WEB PRO NEWS

Mark Brooks: $5 million a year to run Friendster?  Why?  Surely the code isn’t that bloated.

Online Trolling can Enhance Networking

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD -- Dec 26 -- For a growing number of workers, more networking happens online rather than over martinis. Sites such as LinkedIn.com, Facebook.com, Spoke.com, and Friendster.com all foster networks that let members multiply their connections exponentially. Linkedin differs from other networking communities in its business emphasis and more conservative approach.  FULL ARTICLE @ OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

Mark Brooks: It's a shame Ryze isn't mentioned in this article.  Linkedin and Ryze are my favorite business networks.  Linkedin has been invaluable for business development work. 

Disney--A Friend of Friendster's?

CNET NEWS -- Dec 9 -- Friendster has apparently drawn the fancy of Mickey Mouse.  Media giant Disney has shown interest in the company, according to sources. It's unclear, however, if Disney has backed away from the table, they say. But whatever the case, traditional media companies like Disney have once again been investing in and buying up Internet properties to build up their operations online.  FULL ARTICLE @ CNET

Online Video-Sharing Service

ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Dec 7 -- Grouper Networks will let users share their homemade videos over the Internet and play them on portable devices such as the iPod. The free service will give users the platform and software tools to present photos and video taken from their cameras to an online audience of their choice.  They will offer unlimited uploads of video clips and a downloadable video application allowing users to edit their movies, add music and effects, and compress the files. The service lets users publish their filmstrips or videos to other Web destinations such as Friendster and MySpace.  FULL ARTICLE @ CNEWS

Internet Advertising Growth

MEDIA POST -- Dec 1 -- Revenue from Web ads next year, excluding online newspaper classifieds, will increase by a predicted 25.2%, while overall U.S. ad revenues will grow by 4.5%. The Internet will account for more ad dollars than radio by 2007, and will surpass magazines by 2008, to become the third largest ad category, with newspapers and broadcast television remaining in the top two slots.  MEDIA POST NEWSLETTER

Mark Brooks: Webdate, OKCupid, Plentyoffish, Friendster and Myspace offer advertising.  Who else?

Is Friendster up for Sale?

CNET -- Nov 14 -- Friendster has hired a banker (Montgomery & Co., a boutique investment banking firm in Santa Monica) to find a buyer, CNET News.com has learned. Company executives have been talking to several Internet media companies about an acquisition, according to those sources.  According to one source, it was looking for a sale price in the ballpark of $200 million. Now its price has been lowered to the range of $50 million to $100 million.  From September 2003 to March 2004--during the height of Friendster's popularity--it drew more than 1 million unique visitors per month, according to Nielsen.  Since then, Friendster's traffic has fallen to roughly half that. The site has roughly 21 million members.  FULL ARTICLE @ CNET

Mark Brooks: Hopefully, if Friendster sells, it will sell for $100 million or more.  $50 million seems awfully low given that it was valued at over $30 million for it's first VC round.  It's still a very considerable internet property and holds a lot of promise.

Web Dating Game Heats Up

THE STREET -- Nov 14 -- Troublemakers on the online dating scene may have met their match in a group of increasingly brand-conscious Internet giants.  Yahoo! Personals and Match.com, two of the largest Internet dating sites, are stepping up their efforts to weed their services of abusive, obnoxious or married people. Earlier this year, Yahoo! instituted a code of conduct for online daters in which they must swear that they are single and won't be abusive toward other members. The company also has made it easier for members to report misbehavior. Match.Com has added additional people to its fraud and abuse unit.  The effort comes as the online dating market consolidates and surviving services fight off competition for loyal users from social network sites like Friendster.com and Myspace.com, which also offer free dating, and smaller upstarts such as True.com.  "They have got very significant brands that they have to protect," says Mark Brooks, who runs the blog onlinepersonalswatch.com. "They can't have people who are scamming, spamming, being obscene or being obnoxious. It's very bad for their brand." About 11% of all online users have a profile on an online dating site, according to Jupiter Media. "The market is reaching maturity," Jupiter Research analyst Nate Elliot told the blog onlinepersonalswatch.com in a recent interview. "...there are fewer consumers 'just curious' to have a look. It's no longer the 'new thing.'"  FULL ARTICLE @ THE STREET

Friendster Emailing Overture Not Endearing to All

CNET -- Nov 10 -- Friendster dug deep into its network to pull out the e-mail addresses of people who didn't initially respond to friends' invites to join the online social network a year or more ago.  The e-mails implied they were coming from a friend when, in fact, they were being sent by the company. The e-mails went out during the last two weeks.  "I could think of about 10 different ways for Friendster to improve itself, but spamming those who didn't care to join in the first place isn't one of them," said Adam Finley, who publishes the blog AdJab. Friendster spokesman Jeff Roberto called this a misconception. "We're not in the business of spamming," he said. The campaign, he added, was a one-time mailing to people who were once invited but never joined the network.  The e-mail was designed to communicate with people who may have missed invites because of technical difficulties on the site, or may not know about new features, such as blogs, video and file sharing. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET

Mark Brooks: Friendster is pulling out the stops to regain lost ground.

Friendster Revitalisation

BUSINESS WEEK -- Nov -- In its hunt for new members, Friendster has dusted off my recommendations and reissued them to my friends. Who says I'd want to recommend Friendster now? And who says those people are still my friends? (They are, but I'm making a rhetorical point.) FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

Mark Brooks: Friendster has been making up for lost time.  Have you seen it lately?  A new look and lots of new features.  New CEO Taek Kwon has got the Friendster team jamming!  Who would have thought Friendster would have been playing David and Goliath with Myspace?!

Online Profiles Cause Security Concern

CAVALIER DAILY -- Nov 3 -- The University administration and the University Police Department are urging students to exercise caution when posting their personal information on social networking Web sites and online personal journals. "There are incidents at colleges where people are posing as students," Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia Lampkin said. It is important to not include home or work address, phone numbers, social security number, full name or class schedule on Web sites. Friendster.com has addressed concerns with personal security by providing extensive account settings options, and by not displaying information such as e-mail addresses, physical addresses or phone numbers. FULL ARTICLE @ CAVALIER DAILY

Mark Brooks: Post your first name...not your social security number, silly! Anonymity anon on social networking sites.  People identify themselves as who they really are.  Users should think twice about adding other identifying info beyond first name and age.

Friendster Turns up Multimedia Features

CNET -- Oct 28 -- Friendster's new capabilities, come through a distribution partnership with Grouper Networks, a start-up that specializes in technology for sharing photos and home videos over the Web. After downloading Grouper's free file-sharing software, Friendster members can invite people to view an unlimited number of photos and videos as well as stream music. Facebook began allowing members to create online photo albums with no limit on the number of photos they can upload. MySpace lets members upload and share songs. And Slide, which launched in August, makes photo-sharing a key aspect of its social networking site. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET

Mark Brooks: New CEO Taek Kwon is shaking Friendster up and adding lots of fun new features at a frenetic pace.  If only he was on board a year earlier.  Still, I really hope Friendster sees a resurgence.  Myspace has stolen Friendster's thunder, but Friendster is no small fry.

Online, but Not Looking for Love

UNION LEADER -- Oct 25 -- Social networking may be a close cousin of online dating, but it is much more low-key - attracting a totally different demographic. More online dating sites may be moving toward social networking as a way to keep members on the site. One of the first social networking sites that took off was Friendster, which relied on the "perception of exclusivity" to drive its membership numbers sky high, according to Mark Brooks, editor of industry blog Online Personals Watch. Brooks worked with friend and Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams in 2003, and said much of his friend's success is owed to timing and a few simple observations. "He looked at the real world and he modeled it, and one of the things he noticed is there are certain people that are the connecters," Brooks said. Friendster did not try too hard, Brooks said. But it allowed people to join only when they were invited - thus feeding on the desire for exclusivity - and let people meet others through friends, thus ensuring, for the most part, that these friends of friends were legitimate. Facebook has virtually locked up the college market. MySpace.com started as a network for musicians to advertise and expand their fan base, but is fast becoming the largest social networking site in operation. "They're out-Friendstering Friendster, which is absolutely amazing" Brooks said. But business networking sites, such as Linkedin.com, will likely surpass them all in terms of lifespan, revenue and popularity, according to Marc Lesnick who runs the Internet Dating Conference, the largest industry event for online dating and social networking Web sites. FULL ARTICLE @ UNION LEADER

Facebook Now 10th Most Popular Site on Net

THE CRIMSON -- Oct 25 -- Facebook.com unveiled its long-awaited expanded photo feature last week. Facebook.com is the 10th most trafficked site on the internet, with over 8.5 million unique visitors in September.  Although other networking sites such as Friendster and MySpace have long allowed users to upload multiple photos, Hughes promised in September that the site would offer "more photos than any other comparable site." Facebook.com is now the first of its kind to offer unlimited capacity. Murtaza M. Hussain, a spokesman for online social networking newcomer XuQa.com, said that unlimited photo uploading is more a catchphrase than a reality since most people would upload few photos. FULL ARTICLE @ THE CRIMSON

Online Networking Clicks Among Friends

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Oct 23 -- There's now a social network site for practically every subgroup. aSmallWorld.net is an invitation-only site for jetsetters. Dogster.com caters to dog owners. LinkedIn.com serves professionals. Friendster has about 19 million users. MySpace.com now boasts 33 million users. Facebook.com has grown to 8.3 million users and is the 11th most visited site on the Internet.  Among other things, each site is a treasure trove of consumer data. In May 2005, the Accel group, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist firm, bought a $12.2 million chunk of Facebook, which is currently valued at around $100 million. This month, Yahoo purchased Upcoming, a site that lets people publicly list and share their schedules of events with friends. In May 2005 Google bought Dodgeball; a site that brings social networking to mobile phones.  'Online social networking is in its infancy. There's a huge opportunity for players like Microsoft or Yahoo or Google to layer social networking applications on top of existing features, like utilizing existing buddy lists or saving e-mail addresses and connecting them to profiles. 'Social scientists ascribe the appeal of social networking sites to what they call "low cost." Rather than engage in long conversations to determine someone's favorite movie, for example, Facebook users can just glance at a profile and get a sense of the interests of the person living next door. But lots of low-cost friendships might mean lots of lower quality friendships. FULL ARTICLE @ SF GATE

Mark Brooks: Some social networks will morph into or be created as Personal Information Management systems to complement the likes of Outlook (or CRM, in the case of LinkedIn) to allow people to orgnise their networks of friends more easily.  Many social networks spur on the 'connectors' to connect with as many people as possible, turning their networks into popularity contests.  This creates a low focus, low integrity network.  Facebook is the best example of a high integrity, high utility social network; they masterfully limited connections to a core group of students/alumni.  This will ensure their success well into the future...and give classmates a run for their money.  Social networking is indeed still in it's infancy. 

Scammers Dupe Online Daters for Millions of Dollars

-- Oct 14 -- Markus Frind, of Plentyoffish, estimates that scammers operating on Internet dating sites steal at least $100 million a year. Those performing a ruse could be women in Russia asking for money to leave their country; or a Nigerian sending "business proposition" emails. Crooks often use stolen credit cards to join a site, send out messages to other members, wait for responses then sometimes chat for four or five months before asking for money. "It's bad for someone like Yahoo because it reduces the value of their service, it tarnishes their service," says Dave Evans, a consultant to the online dating and social networking industry who also writes a blog. Nelson Rodriguez, CEO of LoveAccess.com, explained that two and a half years ago Nigerian scammers used stolen credit cards to join the site causing so many charge backs (about 1% of all transactions) that it threatened his merchant account with his bank. But he's since blocked Russian and Nigerian IP addresses and cut that rate down by three-quarters. LoveAccess.com, with 3.5 million members, also reviews profiles manually, like its bigger competitors. TRUE created a stir in the industry last summer when it announced a nationwide campaign for legislation to require dating sites to conduct criminal checks of their members. Not everyone agrees with Evans, who estimates that on the majority of dating sites, nearly 10% of all profiles are fake. Mark Brooks, a former executive with Cupid.com, FriendFinder and Friendster, disputes that figure and says the actual dating sites, not their members, are even bigger targets. Fraudsters will set up an affiliate Web site to send traffic and fake members, which earn them a commission that can exceed the price of the monthly membership, says Brooks, who also writes a blog, Online Personals Watch. FULL ARTICLE @ INTERNET WEEK

Mark Brooks: Of 120 employees onsite at Friendfinder in Palo Alto, CA, over half are dedicated to customer service and the 'abuse team'...which grooms for scammers amongst other things.  Smaller sites rely on automated methods for spotting scammers.  Larger sites usually apply people resources for checking profiles and dealing with scammers more proactively.   

The New, Impersonal Personals -- Blogs

PACIFIC NEWS -- Aug 26 -- Friendster, MySpace, Xanga and Facebook are supposed to keep friends connected, but I see people with about 100 plus "friends." Do they actually know these people? One thing I've noticed about the blogs and personal profiles people post online is how open people are. The friendships I've created in the real world have slowly drifted into blog form. Conversations are short, to the point, and can be edited with the click of a mouse. What's next, catching up on old times at an online bar with virtual drinks? I recommend a support group for this sort of thing. No one should be a flaming addict alone with their computer at 1 in the morning. Nothing good comes out of that, except maybe delusional flashes. FULL ARTICLE @ PACIFIC NEWS

Mark Brooks: We should remember, online community is indeed 'virtual.' Nothing will ever touch 'face-to-face.'  The internet is a great vehicle for managing relationships, even initiating them, but some brow time is needed for real, spiritually uplifting relationships. 

Making Online Connections the Microsoft Way

SEATTLE TIMES -- Aug 1 -- MSN is planning to boost Spaces' popularity by launching social-networking features this fall. The service could compete with more established services, such as MySpace, Friendster and Orkut.  "You end up with a series of cascading relationships that get further away from you, at least from your closed circle of friends, but they're very important for you," said Blake Irving, a vice president in the MSN division.  Spaces is free, but users must deal with banner advertising at the top of the blogs. Similarly, Microsoft said that it will place some advertising on its Virtual Earth site. FULL ARTICLE @ SEATTLE TIMES

GoingOn Aims to be Social `Network of Networks'

MERCURY NEWS -- July 22 -- GoingOn, will work on an open-standards platform, is expected to launch this fall, and will mix social networking and blogging.  Perkins and Canter said they want the company to be a "network of networks" -- a platform open for integration with other social networking players, such as Tribe or Friendster, and other large media companies, such as Yahoo, and even other corporate sites. All these players could create their own networks on GoingOn.  Being interoperable is not entirely new. SXIP sells a product that allows the same user name/password information to be used across many networks. FULL ARTICLE @ MERCURY NEWS

Online Personals Watch Exclusive Interview #9 - Friendster's New CEO, Taek Kwon

OPW INTERVIEW -- July 18 -- Taek Kwon joined Friendster last month as President and CEO.  He was formerly the EVP Product Management at Citysearch and VP Engineering and Operations at Hotwire.  Mark Brooks, Editor of Online Personals Watch, interviewed Taek to get his take on the future of Friendster.   

Friendster invented online social networking, as we know it.  How did they lose ground to Myspace, and how do you intend to regain it?
Social networking is very different from when it was invented.  I wouldn’t say Friendster invented social networking; Friendster popularized social networking.  When we first launched, we were the only game in town.  Friendster was, and is, a great way for people to connect with new friends and reengage with old friends. Friendster didn’t have a strong secondary call to action for its users beyond finding and connecting with people. Many people used it as a dating tool.  Now, many of the initial uses of Friendster have become commoditized.  Myspace, Hi5 and the Facebook are all growing.  The idea of ‘connecting’ is no longer a differentiator.  It never really was.  We have the ‘platform’ for adding value to users.  But we haven't determined the applications that will sit on top of this platform to make it valuable, sticky, and we no longer have the cachet we did earlier.  Myspace is focused heavily on music.  They have a different approach to networking; I think of a lot of their interactions more as incidental social collisions than what we have on our platform.  They provided users the ability to express themselves with a high degree of customizability and their ability to upload and integrate media is unparalleled.  It’s a freeform experience and a vehicle for self-expression.  It’s proven successful.  Friendster needs to also add context to the site’s friendships.  We don't really have a theme or context to drive activity.  That’s the challenge, which we hope to meet soon. 

What are incidental social collisions?
People are usually invited into Friendster.  They join through invitations.  A lot of people join to meet new people and socialize.  The types of activity and the conversations people have on Friendster are usually based on people you knew before they joined; our networks are generally a little more closed, whereas Myspace is more open.  On Friendster, a higher percentage knows their ‘friends’ offline than on Myspace.  There’s value in both approaches.  Myspace has proven their approach is wildly popular and they have figure out a way to monetize this.  Friendster is focused more on maintaining the networks’ integrity and I feel we will also figure out a compelling approach to monetization.

What is Friendster's target clientele? 
Our demographic skews young.  I’d say the average age of our most frequent users is between 21 to 29 predominantly.  But we have younger and a lot older too. Looking out further ahead our clientele is really anyone who has friends. 

You commented in a prior interview your intention to combine business networking and social networking on Friendster.  Could you expand on that comment?
I believe people, especially young people, are looking for four things.  One, finding a date/mate.  Two, finding a job.  Three, finding a home to live in or a house to buy.  And four, social interaction.  i.e. they want to know what people are doing.  Those four things are what life revolves around for those in their 20's to 30's. I could imagine a world where Friendster acts as a catalyst but doesn't focus on any one. 

Are you interested in events?
We have a very qualified network.  The majority of relationships on Friendster are real live offline friendships.  We are exploring opportunities to facilitate offline interactions.

How will Friendster be making money in one year from now?
We currently make money, a fair amount, from traditional sponsored CPM advertising.  We have a relationship with Google for contextual, text link advertising.  There are other sources that we will experiment with.  Two that may have a role are premium services and lead generation.  We have a relationship with sixapart for blogs where we share revenue on upgrades.  Users can sign up for a blog and pay for more storage and more UI flexibility.  We might introduce more premium services like that.  As you think about possibilities, you’ll not that a fair amount of commerce occurs from social interaction in our daily lives.  Friendster could become a clearinghouse for some of this commerce online through its platform.  One example might be birthday’s alerts.  We could implement a birthday alert and offer users a coupon on hot birthday presents.  I tend to think those types of leads will be more qualified than even sponsored link clicks. 

What lessons learned from your time at Citysearch do you intend to apply at Friendster?
Citysearch was a struggling business.  It was not making money when I joined and had a lot of problems.  Some of their brand equity had been damaged.  They were in a fairly new category.  Others had an interest in local search.  Yahoo and Google were entering the market.  Friendster is in some ways a similar situation. Yahoo 360, MSN, Google and Orkut and even international companies such as Nate.com in Korea have identified social networking as an interesting category they want a piece of and have invested.  The explosion in interest parallels what was happening in local search.  For me, one key lesson learned is how to think strategically in that sort of environment of rapid change, a heated competitive landscape, and investment and M&A activity.  When I left Citysearch they were profitable and growing profits at the fastest rate in our 9-year history.  Unlike local search when it first started, the social networking category already has two of its leading properties in the black and it’s such a new category.  Thefacebook has said it was cash flow positive since Q1.  Also Myspace has said they are profitable.  It’s a very new category.  So, to have two of the top properties in the black is very exciting. 

Who do you regard as the most noteworthy online dating competitors right now?  Are online dating companies really direct competitors?
I don't consider Friendster a dating site although online dating is one  utility provided for many users.  Friendster is a platform that hasn’t committed to any vertical yet, and perhaps never will. The fact is, users use it for dating but there’s a lot more we can and will do in the future.  We don't consider any of the online dating companies direct competitors.  I find eharmony fascinating.  They have a model for building an emotional tie with users during their interview/signup process, taking them through a highly committed screening process and then pushing qualified content to them.  That strategy is something that is not only applicable to dating.  In many ways users are open to pushed content as long as it’s from trusted sources.  Friends are trusted sources.  I could see similar functionality on Friendster.  The idea of pushing content to the user in a qualified way is very interesting. 

What are your thoughts on a mobile Friendster service?
We recently met with some of the folks from Nate.com and Cyworld.com.  Cyworld is a social networking site for Nate, a Korean portal.  SK Telecom owns them.  Mobile internet is fascinating to me.  They offer a tight integration between their IM client, social network, blogging, and profile page submission.  They’ve enabled content access, submission, and editing on any device.  The billing process revolves around the monthly phone bill.  It’s an interesting phenomenon, which we’re not going to be able to duplicate here because the telecom industry is more fragmented here, but the idea of monetizing social networks through micropayments on a phone bill is interesting.  The Koreans have more adoption of mobile internet usage.  There are some interesting lessons to be learned. 

What might Friendster look like in 3 years from now?
We will have more tools built on top of the Friendster platform.  Blogging has had great adoption.  I can imagine a heavy media component to Friendster.  I can also imagine there might be tools and applications that help in organizing friendships offline.  In any event we definitely will move in the direction of adding value beyond being the personal face-book we are today. 

Mark Brooks: Taek is just the medicine for Friendster.  MySpace has stolen some of Friendster's thunder but I think Friendster will find it's way under Taek Kwon (and Jonathan Abrams).   

Friendster's Identity Search

June 13, 2005 — When Taek Kwon (formerly City Search) takes the reins today as CEO of Friendster, he'll have his work cut out for him.  The social networking Web site was a media industry darling, while being named one of Time magazine's 50 Coolest Web sites in 2004.  "Friendster used to be the only game in town, and a lot of people copied off of that success," Kwon said. "The landscape now is that there are a lot more options, which has really changed the competitive landscape."  Friendster now boasts 16 million users. "There was a lot of investment into this segment that was eerily similar to the late '90s boom. They figured, 'We'll get a big audience and then figure out how to make money later,'" said David Card, media analyst with Jupiter Research. "But they might be realizing that just signing up users is useless."  Says Kwon, "when Friendster launched it wasn't really so much of a service as it was a platform. Now some of the other players have really taken that platform in some different directions, some interesting directions."  The evolution into topic-specific destinations left some Friendster subscribers, and possibly Friendster management, wondering: What, exactly, does Friendster do to differentiate itself?  The company is non-committal on the exact direction that will lead Friendster to big profits, or the exact group to target. Kwon listed music, education and business networking as proven themes for drawing in an audience, and noted that in the future music and video services might be a way to offer users more options. "We haven't formally made a bet on any of these strategies, but we know that's a decision that needs to be made in short order," Kwon said. FULL ARTICLE @ ABCNEWS

Mark Brooks: Some critical decisions ahead.  I'd like to see an introduction of evite-esque functionality to Friendster.  That's the direction I was working in with Jonathan in 2003.  Picture

Why MySpace Is the Hot Place

BUSINESS WEEK -- May 31 -- Only 20 months old, MySpace has 14 million uniques a month. Friendster started three years ago and has 1 million uniques. "We're crushing it," says MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, 39. Bands can create their own home pages, with photos, tour dates, and as many as four songs -- all for free.  Now, MySpace has become something akin to the hippest bar in town.  They need to boost revenues, which come largely from ads from companies ranging from Procter & Gamble to NBC. Complicating matters is rising competition from Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL who are moving into social networking.  Yahoo (112 million) plans to launch Yahoo! 360 this fall.  MSN (88 million users) launched 'Spaces, in April, and signed up 10 million users in a matter of weeks.  Blake Irving, VP for MSN communications says it will offer e-mail, instant messaging, and social networking all in one place. "I think people will want one digital profile that says: 'This is my digital self.'"  These networks are part entertainment -- a substitute for TV.  Myspace is developing into a powerful way to reach 16 to 30 year olds, one of the most sought-after and elusive demographic segments.  Friendster, with its smiley-face logo, has focused on fostering safety and trust. MySpace has let its members do whatever they want. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

Mark Brooks: I know, I know, yet another article on MySpace...but it's Business Week already!  Friendster still has shot at stealing back some of it's thunder.  I will interview the new Friendster CEO, to try and get some insight on his plans, for a feature on OPW at the beginning of July.

Friendster Loses Big-time NBC Exec

CBS MARKETWATCH -- May 25 -- Friendster to announce Wednesday that CEO Scott Sassa has resigned according to a Tuesday all-staff meeting.  Former NBC exec, Sassa will be replaced by Taek Kwon, EVP of product at Citysearch.com; to begin June 13.  Sassa will remain through the summer to facilitate a transition.  Kwon was chosen because of his technical background and is expected to focus on technology improvements.  Sassa is known for developing "The West Wing," "Law & Order," and "Fear Factor."  He replaced former Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle, an early Friendster investor. Sassa ushered in an advertising business model.  One year later, the company has roughly the same number of employees, and is expected to generate about $10 million in annual sales. But it's not yet profitable.  Friendster started a trend whereby other social-networking sites, like Google's Orkut and Tribe.net started. FULL ARTICLE @ CBS MARKETWATCH

SUN-SENTINEL -- May 26 -- "I wasn't the right person to go forward," said Sassa. "I thought that where the company was, we wanted someone more versed in technology.  It's certainly not like we're building buggy whips when cars are just coming into fashion.  Social networking is just in the early innings, and Friendster is a great brand."  The Mountain View company also said it had laid off five employees, leaving a staff of 50.  "When the original innovator is ostracized from his company, I think that puts it in jeopardy," said Sean Parker, a founder of Plaxo and Napster and now president of Thefacebook.  FULL ARTICLE @ SUN-SENTINEL

Mark Brooks: Jonathan (Friendster founder) is friends with Sean.  Friendster is backed by VC's Kleiner Perkins (Sun, Amazon, AOL), Benchmark (ebay, AOL, ofoto)  and Battery Ventures (infoseek, akamai) along with a number of individual investors.  I interviewed Jan, the new CEO of Tribe two weeks ago and will interview the new Friendster CEO for the beginning of July.  Let me know your ideas for questions I should ask him.  Before Citysearch, Taek was VP Engineering at Hotwire.

High School Pals - Keep in Touch

ARIZONA DAILY STAR -- May 23 -- For today's high school graduates, there's plenty of options for keeping in touch.  LiveJournal.com is basically an online diary friends can view.  Sites like Friendster.com and MySpace.com can introduce you to your friend's friend's former roommate.  Reunion.com and Classmates.com are devoted to ensuring old schoolmates never lose contact with each other in the real world.  Classmates.com has 60 million users.  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: I lost my black book of university contacts whilst adventuring across the US in an RV after graduating.  In 2000 I worked on eturn.com which was an early form of plaxo (anyone remember planetall.com).  Finally these sites have taken off.  My best avenue for fingind my UK friends is www.friendreunited.co.uk which is huge in UK.

Searching for Profit in Networking Web Sites

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE -- May 12 -- LinkedIn is hoping to create a viable business by capturing a small piece of a classified advertising market estimated to be worth more than $20 billion.  It charges employers $95 to post a job listing for 30 days.  It had 1,000 or so job listings last month.  "They're giving recruiters access to people they wouldn't normally be able to get to," said Charlene Li, Forrester Research. "These are passive job seekers - people who aren't actively looking for jobs - who are extremely valuable to the recruiter and the hiring manager."  Tribe.net, raised $6.3 million, and encourages users to join "tribes" of mutual interest.  A free service that charges for classified ads posted on its site.  Tribe had 243,000 unique visitors in March, according to comScore Media Metrix, 3.7 million people turned to Craigslist.  Friendster received ~$13 million in funding...and found itself eclipsed by a pair of newer, more narrowly focused social networking companies, MySpace, specializing in music, and Thefacebook.com, geared to university students. Friendster had 975,000 uniques in March, according to comScore, 11.3 million users visited MySpace, 4.1 million to Thefacebook.  FULL ARTICLE @ IHT

Mark Brooks: These sites are also doing a good job of reaching the 18-30's crowd...which is an increasingly valuable, and hard to reach demographic.  They're tuning in to the TV less, in preference to the internet.

Longhorn to Get a Social-Networking Infusion

MICROSOFT WATCH -- May 3 -- Microsoft has moved 10 of its social-computing experts from Microsoft Research onto its Windows user interface team. Social-networking technologies, including blogs, Wikis, and RSS, are likely to play a key part in the Longhorn "Aero" interface.  Cheng is known as the main mover and shaker behind "Wallop," Microsoft's Friendster-like social-networking prototype that combines blogging, Wiki and RSS technologies.  Cheng and her team also have worked on Stacks for organizing photos; Personal Map for organizing contacts, and MS Connect and Point-to-Point, which show connections between people, individuals and groups.  FULL ARTICLE @ MICROSOFT WATCH

Mark Brooks: In 1999/2000 I was working on a site called eturn.com; an early version of plaxo/social network.  MSN killed jump.com in 2000 after acquiring it in 1999.  Message from MSN.  They melded new features into MSN including, "the ability to invite others to group events," and, "your space on the web to create, publish, and share pictures, files, calendars and information with friends and family."  MSN wanted to further their, "vision of The Everyday Web and are dedicated to offering solutions to help simplify your life and you keep in contact with friends and family."  Social networking is not a new concept.  Friendster got the design, name and viral seeding right.  MySpace added a little meat to the bone with their affinity for music, and they recognised users wanted more freedom to express themselves.

Site Helps Teens Find Old Friends

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS -- May 3 -- Move over, Friendster. There's a hotter site on the Web.  Teens are turning to Myspace to keep in touch; 14 million users.  Myspace is more than a personals site. Some musicians are creating pages dedicated to their work. The site dedicates a section of its home page to 'Myspace Music,' where unsigned and popular bands alike are profiled with links to their Myspace sites.  It even released a single by the rock group Oasis that could be heard only on www.myspace.com/oasis  FULL ARTICLE @ MERCURY NEWS

Mark Brooks: MySpace has empowered their users with far more customization options.  They live up to the name 'my space' and that's something worth talking about apparently...to the tune of 14 million users!  What can online dating companies learn from MySpace?  Your comments please...

OPW Exclusive Interview #2 - Tribe.net's New CEO

OPW CEO Interview -- May 1 -- I've been intrigued with Tribe.net for a while now; 'Craigslist meets Friendster.'  Marc Pincus started it not long after Jonathan Abrams started Friendster (purportedly friends).  But Marc is handing the CEO's baton to former Pepsi and Proctor and Gamble exec Jan Gullett.  I interviewed Jan to find out a little more about Tribe and where he plans to take it.  - Mark Brooks

Is Tribe.net a dating site? - Dating is a fairly specific activity and we're a general social community.  Building relationships is at our core, but dating is only one kind of relationship.  We’re much broader in scope and certainly not a dating specialist.  We have a local focus and we help get people together.  Knowing who people are is really critical to knowing if you want to do business with them.  We think people are hungering for relationships with people they can trust and ‘community’ relies on people knowing one another.

You mentioned recently you'd be taking a more proactive approach to marketing, but given that Tribe.net is a social network, why the need, it grows itself? - We’re not as big as other social networks but we have good organic growth, so additional marketing will accelerate our growth.  We have attractive fundamental metrics that we want to take advantage of.  We’ve had a nice compound annual growth rate for the last year now.  It just remains to be seen how fast we can step on the accelerator. 

What do you think of Craigslist? - Craigslist is a great service to the community.  Tribe.net is quite different in approach, and people are better off for having both of us.

Why did you decide to join Tribe? - Tribe.net is a real benefit to the community, it’s fun, and I believe there’s a great opportunity for growth.  We had an individual who had cancer and raised $100k from local people through the site. This just wouldn't have happened if he went out and stood on a street corner.  Helping people pull together to help one another is of great interest to me. 

Is there any similarity between Tribe and Starbucks? - Besides being equally addictive?  The reality is we have incredibly intense usage by our members.  The involvement, time and relationship with the site is really very strong.  People hunger for relationships and friendships and being a part of a larger social group.  There’s a hunger to be in groups of people with similar interests.  As we live in more crowded areas, with less public space and fewer places to hangout…it seems like most of hangouts have gone by the wayside and are being replaced by commercial real estate.  Starbucks and Borders have become the new local hangouts.  In a way, we’re the online version of that.

What's the caffeine? - Personal satisfaction from high-touch human relationships.

What do you think of the background checks legislation? - In the early days people communicated anonymously online.  Now there’s the concept of wanting to be known as a real person online, no longer wanting to do stuff surreptitiously.  I believe in honesty, and being comfortable being a real person in the online world is important.  For young people, the online world is their world.  It’s not artificial for them, not a separate playground.  It’s where they live and they want to be associated with others as real people.  That’s why we’re investing a lot of time and effort in building out the ability of our users to represent themselves on the web.

And what of Yub.com’s ‘affiliate program for everyone’ site model? - Amway made a lot of people successful.  I would say there's business promise.  But there’s the sanctity of social friendships based on merit and fundamental essence of goodwill.  We don’t want to pollute Tribe.net with an external economic motivation.  We’re an online hangout…for very good and valid reasons.  Gratifying reasons.  Rather than capitalize all out, we’d rather benefit everyone from the Tribe.net goodwill.

What have you learned from Tribe.net users? - We measured response rates of listings from people with profiles and those without and the difference is phenomenal.  We have actual proof of the value and leverage of having real people, known in the Tribe.net community, list items...they get an order of magnitude greater response rate to their listings.  This is at the core of who we are: providing a rich environment where local people can connect with each other  ‘Thin’ services run the risk of burnout. 

How will Tribe.net make money? - We’ve put a lot of thought into this.  We’re a media business...sponsored tribes, listings and display advertising. These are just different types of marketing messages which we intend to monetize.

House of Wax Promoted on MySpace

KESQ -- Apr 30 -- Users of MySpace can see clips from the upcoming film "House of Wax" and hear the entire soundtrack thanks to a deal with Warner Brothers and Maverick Records.  Other entertainment companies have used MySpace to promote their product, including NBC, which streamed the first episode of its new show "The Office" before its television premiere. Friendster, similarly promoted the Fox series "Stacked," starring Pamela Anderson.  FULL ARTICLE @ KESQ

Mark Brooks: I handled 'promoter/agent' offers whilst at Friendster.  Definitely no shortage of opportunity in that department.

Online Gated Communities: A Revolt Against Friendster

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE -- Apr 27 -- Catch27 encourages members, mostly 18-30, to trade their friends for 'hotter, smarter ones.' The site also is launching a "black ball" feature that some members will be able to use to kick others off.  FunHi, with 150,000 users, emulates a club and 'bounces' users who lack style, like people who 'look homeless,' according to co-founder Ray Savant.  The sites' founders think the Friendsters of the world went wrong by letting anyone in -- and that, as a result, those pioneering services lost the feeling of a community mirroring an actual clique. Friendster, which takes in ad revenue, says it just became profitable this year. ASmallWorld plans a premium membership service where members would pay for additional features. When a site called www.closedsociety.net launched, it opened its first 100 registrations to the public via a Google ad: "Join now and be a VIP." Only about 40 people applied. FULL ARTICLE @ PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

Mark Brooks: People want what they can't have.  The 'perception of exclusivity' is a powerful element of the success of social networking.

Userplane Webmessenger Deployed on Friendster

BUSINESS WIRE --Apr 25 -- Userplane, the leading provider of live community software, today announced the deployment of its instant messaging solution on Friendster.  "Our members asked us for the ability to meet and interact with other members in real time," said Jim Scheinman, Business Development Director, Friendster. RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: Congratulations to Mike Jones and Friendster, on a good choice.  16 million users are going to keep Userplance busy for sure.

American Pie Star on Friendster

INDEPENDENT -- Apr 20 -- Fans were stunned when they saw Tara Reid (American Pie) listed on Friendster.  Hundreds of male admirers bombarded the site with dating requests.  The 29-year-old beauty listed 'St Tropez, Sardinia and Aspen' as her ideal holiday destinations and 'acting, shopping and spending money' as her interests.  A source said: "You'd think she'd have men queuing up, but it's obviously not the case."  FULL ARTICLE @ INDEPENDENT ONLINE

Mark Brooks: I looked her up on Friendster.  This is the actual profile picture.  Alas, when I clicked on her profile, "Suspended User...Sorry, but the user you are trying to view has been suspended."  Probably a fakester.

Do You Want to be My Friendster?

SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE -- Apr 17 -- Young professionals are turning to neatly packaged Web sites like Friendster, MySpace, NamesDatabase and LinkedIn to help them create relationships.  "It is sort of the next generation of lifestyle portals," said Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace.com.  Michelle Wohl, marketing director for Friendster, said "really, the stigma is gone from meeting people online." That stigma is what spurred Jonathan Abrams to start Friendster in 2003. He had been unsuccessful in online dating, calling it "a bit creepy," and decided a better way to meet people was through common friends.  The "viral nature" of the trend has grown Friendster's membership to 15 million.  MySpace, whose slogan is "A place for friends," is gaining on Friendster with 9 million users. It has focused on a specific interest, music, and the company has even organized large parties.  NamesDatabase offers fewer bells and whistles.  It has revenues of $1 million, runs on two Dell servers.  Users must submit more than 20 e-mail addresses of friends to the database for full access or buy a $12 subscription. The site boasts 13 million users.  LinkedIn is targeted at business people who use the site to find employees or clients.  It has 2 million users, many of whom are high-ranking execs.  FULL ARTICLE @ SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE

Social Butterflies Flock to Internet Friend Sites

TELEGRAPH -- Apr 10 -- Friendster was the first big hit. But when your mom gets her own Friendster profile, you know it’s time to move on. Enter Myspace, Habbohotel, Linkedin, Jewster, Orkut and Tickle. Danah Boyd, a UC Berkeley doctoral candidate (online communities) says such sites connected her to like-minded people when she was an isolated teen.  Judith Meskill, editor of the Social Software Weblog recently met someone she had been corresponding with online. “I showed up and, plop, in the middle of the grassy knoll was a guy sitting in a wheelchair and flailing like he had no motor control. He was wearing a football helmet, with a bent straw that he would use to punch out words on a Ouija-board-size keyboard. He was laughing; it was amazing. We were both laughing. I never knew it (from chatting with him online).”  Says Tickle.com CEO James Currier: “People are reaching out for richer interaction. In your real life, you probably only interact with 100 people. On the Internet, you find ones most like you and that have same interests as you.”  Flickr.com combines blogging, social networking and photo sharing. On Last.fm, users create a profile with a list of songs, and the Web site connects users with similar musical tastes. “Of course it’s addictive,” Boyd says of these social Web sites. “It plays into human nature.”  FULL ARTICLE @ NASHUA TELEGRAPH

Mark Brooks: Flickr was just bought by Yahoo.  Fotolog.net is a popular competitor.

Catch27 Boasts a Wicked Twist

PITT NEWS (Uni Pittsburgh) -- Apr 11 -- Catch27.com is the latest addition to the list of interactive Web sites for college students, which includes Friendster and Facebook. But, there's a catch, you trade your friends for hotter, smarter ones.  Not everyone can join Catch27.  "It's kind of an elite, edgy group of hot minds and hot bodies," the spokesperson explained. "If they're not, we kick them off the site."   A member must be at least 18, and few are older than 27.  A contest will reward people for using social networking and stereotyping to their advantage, Johnson said. "I think people are blind to the fact of how the social world really works, but it is really cruel in a lot of ways." This cruelty stems from the social exchange theory, a combination of behaviorism and economics, according to psychologist Richard Moreland.  "One party gives something and another gives a service in exchange."  FULL ARTICLE @ THE PITT (Student) NEWS

Mark Brooks: The Carroll sisters are at it again.  Catch 27 is fresh, viral, insightful and slightly insane...and follows up GreatBoyFriends.com.  Catch27 thrives on a new viral marketing term I'm coining, right here, right now.  'The perception of exclusivity.'  I paid a Sonoma winery a visit in 2001 and asked the 5th generation owner where I could get his wines.  Most were sold direct...  Great, I wanted some, direct.  How to?  Well, he said, you'll have to get on the email list.  OK, here's my email.  Nope.  I needed to write in with my email address, then I would join a two year waiting list to get onto his 3000 strong email list that buys 90% of his wine each year.  My jaw dropped but the guy was for real!  Friendster started the ball rolling on this concept in earnest.  Gmail followed suit.  Now Yahoo 360 is joining the bandwagon by limiting initial signups to 'the inner circle.'  It works, it drives people nuts, they talk, and it makes for some mighty cheap advertising.

FOX Uses Friendster Blogs for Pamela Anderson Show 'Stacked'

PRNEWSWIRE -- Apr 6 -- Friendster announced it is working with FOX to promote it's new series,  'Stacked,' through the use of Friendster Blogs. More than thirty members of the cast and crew, including 'Stacked' star Pamela Anderson, have Friendster profiles and blogs, providing insight and images on the making of the show, and a look at what's going on behind the scenes.  The 'Stacked' blogs on Friendster are viewable to the public at http://stacked.friendster.com. Cast profiles are only available to Friendster members.  FULL RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: We'll be seeing more of this kind of 'celebrity connection' in the online dating world ;-)   It's great for branding, viral marketing, PR.

Friendster Launches Friendster Classifieds in the Philippines

ASIA PULSE -- Mar 29 -- Friendster has launched Friendster Classifieds by Pusit, a Filipino classifieds community designed to serve Metro Manila and the 78 other provinces that make up the Philippines. "Friendster has created a safe, online community for millions of Filipinos who trust us to deliver services that help them keep in touch, meet new friends and share personal interests and experiences," said Joe Hurd, Friendster's director of international bus dev.  SMS alerts for Friendster Classifieds by Pusit users and other text message-based services through Friendster Mobile will be offered soon, in addition to WAP services.  Pusit is Tagalog for "squid" and is a favorite local dish.  RELEASE @ YAHOO ASIA NEWS 

Mark Brooks: Is Friendster gunning for Craigslist?

Friendster Invests in Filipino Online Classified Service

INQ7 -- Mar 24 -- Friendster has disclosed its partnership with Pusit, which has been running an online classified service since last year.  Last year, Friendster launched its first mobile service in the Philippines with a Filipino mobile phone content provider.  FULL ARTICLE @ INQ7

Friendster Befriends Blogs--and Fees

CNET -- Mar 3 -- Friendster earned some notoriety for firing a blogger...and is now bringing bloggers into the fold--and hoping to collect fees in the process. Friendster launched a beta of Friendster Blogs. The underlying technology is provided by Six Apart (TypePad). The default option is $4.95 per month. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET

Mark Brooks: Finally, some meat on the bone. This should help Friendster recover some lost ground from MySpace.  OnlinePersonalsWatch is built on TypePad btw.

TheFaceBook; Business, Casual

HARVARD CRIMSON -- Feb 26 -- They wanted to make a website that would connect the Harvard campus with $1k startup money. They didn't anticipate meeting the CEOs of Friendster and Google—or that they would take time off Harvard to share a house in Silicon Valley with the co-founder of Napster, Sean Parker. TheFacebook.com serves 1.5 million. Zuckerberg estimates he’s been to 40 meals with interested VC's and other companies, like Google, to discuss investment. Advertising income exceeds their operating costs; $50k monthly server costs and salaries for eight employees. “We’re in a really interesting place because if you look at the assets we have, we’re fucking rich,” says Zuckerberg. “But if you look at like the cash and the amount of money we have to live with, we’re dirt poor." ConnectU filed suit in September '04 charging that Zuckerberg used their source code, business model, and original ideas to build TheFaceBook. Normally investors shy away from companies facing a federal lawsuit, but Peter Thiel—co-founder of PayPal—was willing to take the risk. FULL ARTICLE @ CRIMSON

Mark Brooks: Peter Thiel, Ram Shriram and Tim Koogle were the power triage (smart money) involved with Friendster as Jonathan moved from homespun startup to VC darling.  (I worked with Friendster when Jonathan was working out of his apartment).  Ram and Tim are also on Plaxo's board.

Friendster; Student Barred From School

INQ7 -- Feb 26 -- A 15-year-old student was barred from school after she admitted that she, and two classmates, created an account for their "enemy" at "Friendster.com," where they wrote testimonials full of obscenities and vulgarities maligning her reputation.  FULL ARTICLE @ INQ7

Mark Brooks: Friendster discourages and removes 'Fakesters.'  Anonymity anon.  Unlike online dating sites, anonymity is not allowed on Friendster.  A factor that makes the Friendster service seem more 'safe.' 

Kurzweils Law and Friendster

ZDNET AUSTRALIA -- Feb 24 -- Which will have a greater impact on the history of humanity--Friendster or penicillin? Coined by futurist Ray Kurzweil, Kurzweil's Law, otherwise known as the Law of Accelerating Returns, states that building on past accomplishments, the pace of technological change doubles every decade--leading to a Moore's Law vision of progress.  Early stages of technology--the wheel, fire, stone tools--took tens of thousands of years to evolve and be widely deployed. A thousand years ago, a paradigm shift such as the printing press took on the order of a century to be widely deployed. Today, major paradigm shifts, such as cell phones and the World Wide Web, were widely adopted in only a few years time.  The social networking site Friendster debuted in 2002. Penicillin was invented in 1928.  FULL ARTICLE @ ZDNET

Mark Brooks: We have yet to see the best of Friendster.

The Story of Money, Love and Friendster

ABS-CBN NEWS -- Feb 22 -- Friendster endured three CEO's during 2004 and has seen a spate of senior executives depart in recent weeks.  New CEO Scott Sassa "has figured out how to make a business of this," said John Doerr (VC Google, Amazon). Doerr said they would announce a partnership deal in February and "reach profitability within the next 90 days."  Friendster has 16 million registered users, MySpace has 7.6 million.  5x people visited MySpace as Friendster in December and they spent far more time there (Friendster - 17 mins, MySpace - 78 mins) according to Nielsen/NetRatings.  According to MediaMetrix, MySpace logged 2 billion+ page views last month compared to 152 million page views at Friendster.  "Unique visitors and page views drive revenues, not registered users," said MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe. MySpace now hosts sites for 110,000 musicians. Users IM, play games, contribute to blogs or browse events.  Geoffrey Yang, VC with Redpoint Ventures, said he is days away from investing in MySpace; "these guys in a sense are trying to be an MTV for the Internet."  Marissa Mayer, who manages Orkut, acknowledged that it and Friendster have "similar capabilities and similar limitations."  FULL ARTICLE @ ABS-CBN NEWS

Mark Brooks: Friendster has been out-Friendstered.  What has Scott Sassa got up his sleeve?  Your comments please?

Celebrities GuessWhatiHeard.com Launch Party

PRNEWSWIRE -- Feb 16 -- Celebrities flocked the Viper Room for Star Magazine's Pre-Grammy party. GuessWhatiHeard.com was a main attraction for celebrities as they fashioned the sites latest slogans and attire. GuessWhatiHeard.com allows people to talk about their ex-friends, flames, business associates, and classmates. In turn, this information can then be used by others when considering whether or not to date, befriend, or do business with these very people. Founder Kelly Felix created the site after hearing websites such as Friendster and MySpace were boring.  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: Friendster is getting it's act together.  MySpace is anything but boring.

Online Personals Sites Customer Experience Ranking

BUSINESS WIRE -- Feb 14 -- Yahoo! Personals, Match.com and True.com provided the best search functionality and dating information, earning the highest customer experience rankings. Yahoo! Personals, American Singles and eHarmony ranked highest among prospective customers.  The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings are based on research with 2,000 customers and 2,000 prospective customers using American Singles, Black Planet, eHarmony, Friend Finder, Friendster, Lavalife, Match.com, PerfectMatch, Tickle, True and Yahoo! Personals.  "Consumer satisfaction with online dating sites is considerably lower than satisfaction levels seen with other online services. However, these diminished satisfaction levels are driven primarily by the personal expectations of the customer and their interaction with other members," said Dr. Bonny Brown.  The best sites were well organized and easy to use.  Poorer sites were cluttered with ads or heavy text.  83% of start at a search engine. A clear advantage for Yahoo! Personals; 40% started at Yahoo.  eHarmony was the most common destination for Google searchers.  50% of customers expressed interest in personality tests, 50% in physical attraction testing. 45% interested in background checks.  30% of online dating service customers in the study were married or living with a significant other/partner!  Tickle is considered the "fun" site; 73% described the site that way. Yahoo! Personals is considered the "friendly" site (76%), and True is the "safe" site (69%).  Keynote report.  FULL PRESS RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: How did Keynote end up with a sample set containing 30% non-singles?

Relationship Based Matching; Love Machines

LA CITY BEAT -- Feb 10 -- It’s hard to know how faith might play into Warren’s methods, since he is unwilling to subject his never-published test research to independent review. “There’s obviously an evangelical influence,” says Dr Thompson of weAttract.com, creators of Yahoo Personals relationship test. Warren has a master’s of divinity and clinical psychology Ph.D. and served as dean of Fuller Theological Seminary School of Psychology. Friendster.com recently partnered with eHarmony but the company was unaware that eHarmony excluded gays/lesbians until informed by CityBeat. “I have to call and talk to eHarmony about that, because you’re telling me this for the first time,” says Friendster’s head of bus. dev.  EHarmony also rejects one in five who fill out the 500+ personality questions. eHarmony screens out anyone with a curiously low level of energy (depression), users with three+ unsuccessful marriages, or anyone who fails to answer its questions truthfully. Eharmony's questions use the homogamous approach, based on the idea that like fits better with like. True, PerfectMatch, and Yahoo! prefer to match users based on complementarity. Dr Houran, of True, is author of an article in The North American Journal of Psychology detailing their failings. The PerfectMatch members who meet on Dr. Phil are disappointed that they haven’t all been united with their potential soul mate, but seem to understand that very few things in life ever work out perfectly. About 15 of the couples from the show seem to have hit it off. FULL ARTICLE @ LA CITY BEAT

Friendster Commodifies Notion of "Friend"

CHICAGO MAROON -- Feb 4 -- Friendster has either changed our mentality about social relationships or simply brought that mentality further out into the open. Hey, sure…maybe you like someone. But let’s get to the point: You want to meet people. And this person—friend, passing acquaintance, whatever—is a stepping-stone to that. And look: I have 362 friends on my page! All these little pictures I’ve accumulated give me self-worth—and help me network! Of course, Friendster doesn’t merit all the responsibility for cheapening the connotation of the word “friend.” FULL ARTICLE @ CHICAGO MAROON

Mark Brooks: Friendster has mechanised human networking so some abuse is natural. The integrity/quality of a persons Friendster network can be judged by the testimonials and is inversely proportional to how many people over 100 friends they have. Just how many ' really good' friends can one have. Probably a dozen, max.

Business 'Social' Networks; Expand Your Enterprise

WALL STREET JOURNAL -- Jan 31 -- Sites like Friendster.com let users meet new people through their friends on the network -- in effect, a mutual friend provides an introduction. As the popularity of these sites has boomed, more people have realized that online networking can also be useful for business purposes. Making new business contacts is the third-most-popular feature of online networks -- after contacting friends and looking for jobs -- says Nate Elliott, an analyst at Jupiter Research, a unit of Jupitermedia Corp. of Darien, Conn. A total of 15% of all online users are interested in using networks to make business contacts. FULL ARTICLE @ WALL STREET JOURNAL

Mark Brooks: I highly recommend the business network leaders LinkedIn.com and Ryze.com. OnlineBusinessNetworks.com is good guide.

Friendster, Love and Money

NY TIMES -- Jan 24 -- Fifteen months ago, Friendster enjoyed the kind of enviable status that Silicon Valley start-ups dream of: A-list investors and millions of users. The company endured three chief execs during 2004 and has seen a spate of senior executives depart in recent weeks. A younger, flashier rival called MySpace has eclipsed Friendster and Friendster loyalists have groused that the company has done almost nothing to enliven its site. Reid Hoffman (of LinkedIn), another early Friendster investor, agreed that the company frittered away its sizable head start over the competition. Last summer, the company hired Mr. Sassa a former NBC executive taking over from Timothy Koogle, an early Friendster investor and former Yahoo chief exec, who ran the company after the board lost faith in Mr. Abrams. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

Mark Brooks: Jonathan did a stellar job of observing the real world and emulating social group interaction online. I'd love to see Jonathan take the Product Development reigns. Seems MySpace has outfriendstered Friendster.

Matchmaker Jobster Seeks a Better Way to Link Recruiters, Applicants

SEATTLE PI -- Jan 18 -- Money is also rapidly filling Jobster's coffers, with Ignition Partners and Trinity Ventures announcing today that they have injected $10.5 million into the year-old project. The Jobster service, which will be unveiled this spring, allows recruiters to tap into the knowledge base of their current work force in order to find quality candidates for a job. Jobster is described as a combination of Monster.com and Friendster. SEATTLE PI

Online Dating Liars

FALLS CHURCH NEWS PRESS -- ...She came across an older gentleman who claimed he had a Rolls Royce. The suitor shows up at her house in a rusty Ford Taurus. The woman asked, “What happened to the Rolls Royce.” “Look hon, you misunderstood me, I said I’ve got a car and it rolls.” Experiences such as this have led to a dramatic revenue slowdown this year for online dating services. I believe the main reason online dating has peaked is because people are tired of meeting liars and weirdoes. At least in a bar you can usually figure out if someone needs a shrink within five minutes. ...There is only one group of people that isn’t desired by anybody - Liars. So, here is a New Year’s resolution that I think millions of people should consider: “I will not fib on the Internet.” FALLS CHURCH NEWS PRESS

Mark Brooks: Friends can vouch for their friends on Friendster by writing testimonials. This helps build trust - one of the reasons Friendster has been so popular. True.com uses Rapsheets to do background checks so at least women can be more assured they're not meeting a married man or ex-con.

Proctor & Gamble and MySpace

NEW YORK TIMES -- Dec 3rd -- PROCTER & GAMBLE, the country's largest advertiser and an eager pursuer of new marketing methods, has begun an experimental promotion for its Secret Sparkle deodorant using music stars' personal profiles on a social networking Web site. Under the deal, the MySpace.com home page features a profile of the singer Hilary Duff accompanied by logos for Secret Sparkle, an extension of the Secret brand that went on sale a year and a half ago. Those who view Ms. Duff's profile can try to win an iPod in the "Secret 'Discover the Secret Strength of Today's Hottest Rising Music Stars' Sweepstakes," and sign up for more information on Secret Sparkle, other Procter & Gamble products or Ms. Duff. The promotion will feature a succession of other artists and their MySpace profiles. NY TIMES

Mark Brooks: Unbelievable. I just checked the Alexa rank for MySpace and nearly fell out my chair. MySpace, underdog 'underground' social networking site appears to have more traffic than Friendster now! Friendster vs MySpace

eHarmony and Friendster Launch Online Personals Matching System

BUSINESS WIRE -- Nov. 30 --Friendster and eHarmony announced an exclusive partnership. The companies will jointly launch a co-branded matching service that will combine eHarmony's patented Compatibility Matching System(TM) with Friendster's vibrant 13-million member community to help Friendster members find love and long-term relationships. YAHOO FINANCE

Mark Brooks: So that's how Friendster will make money! Nice move. Friendster gets a cut of eHarmony's premium membership revenues without alienating their avid userbase. Still, MySpace has an even more avid, but slightly younger userbase. I wonder who they're talking to?

Phillipines Chosen as Launchpad of Friendster’s Cell Phone Service

INFOTECH -- 11/21 -- Friendster will soon launch its first mobile service in the Philippines to test the concept of merging the biggest online social networking service with mobile phone technology. The mobile service will soon be rolled out in other countries. Founded in August 2002 by Jonathan Abrams, Friendster has had an unprecedented growth in the number of its registered users. To date, it has 13 million users worldwide. INFOTECH

Mark Brooks: But how will Friendster make money? How about some additional services for US users? MySpace is stealing ground from you Friendster.

Social-network Sites Scramble for Prosperity

SEATTLE TIMES--...There are two strategies now in play. The first: Some startups have decided social networking will never make any money, but they'll try to make money off other services instead, such as job or apartment listings. Mountain View, Calif.'s LinkedIn is one.
The second — used by dozens of companies, including Friendster, MySpace and Multiply — is to draw so many users that advertisers will pay to be on the Web site. SEATTLE TIMES

Globix Hosts Friendster

NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Globix announced today that it is providing infrastructure services for Friendster.com (9 million members); advanced data center services. Friendster users have noticed significantly faster response times and page downloads. YAHOO NEWS

Official Apprentice Profiles on Friendster

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Friendster today unveiled the official profiles for all 18 candidates from this season's NBC hit reality show, 'The Apprentice'....an innovative way for entertainment programs to reach out to viewers over the internet and encourage fans. LINK "Millions of Friendster users will have the chance to express their enthusiasm for their favorite candidates via Friendster and share their opinions with their friends. As a huge fan of 'The Apprentice', I will be one of them," said Jonathan Abrams, founder of Friendster. YAHOO NEWS

Friendster Hires Former AOL Exec to Lead Ad Sales

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Friendster, a privately held Web site that links friends for dating and activities, on Monday named Charles Barrett (AOL, Yahoo) as vice president of sales, overseeing all aspects of advertising sales. Friendster is eyeing advertising as a way to make money. YAHOO NEWS

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, Aug. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- ...Charlie will oversee all aspects of advertising sales. His first initiatives will include building a world-class national ad sales team and creating new revenue producing programs. In addition, he will also be responsible for ad operations. YAHOO NEWS