Friendster, the popular social networking site launched soon after Facebook is planning to re-innovate itself for a new identity as it has been struggling for years to justify its continued existence. To re-innovate itself, the site has planned to erase most of the data users have stored on the site.
On Tuesday, it sent an email to each of the registered users to back up all their profile, photos, messages, blog posts and more as these will be deleted on 31st May preserving the basic profile and friend list. For the assistance, Friendster offered an exporter app on its site to let users download their content or port it to third party sites like Flickr or Multiply.
Friendster has no other options as the traffic and active-user count have almost flat-lined over the time. Its current owner, Malaysia Internet company MOL Global, bought the site in late 2009 for rumored $26 million price tag. Friendster's new identity is not yet unveiled but it is appearing to be positioning itself as a casual gaming destination.
Unless Friendster is able to pull off a Phoenix-like rise from the ashes, it will be yet another casualty of the Facebook empire, which has nearly stomped out other competitors like MySpace on its path to total Internet domination. Games and other apps have exploded on the platform, giving birth to companies like FarmVille maker Zynga and, often, netting Facebook a share of their profits.
In an ironic twist, Facebook currently owns the patents on many social-networking features Friendster helped popularize. Facebook quietly purchased Friendster's patent portfolio from MOL last year, giving it the intellectual-property rights to inventions like connecting users within social networks, linking relationship information with outside databases, and compelling users to upload and share their own content.
On Tuesday, it sent an email to each of the registered users to back up all their profile, photos, messages, blog posts and more as these will be deleted on 31st May preserving the basic profile and friend list. For the assistance, Friendster offered an exporter app on its site to let users download their content or port it to third party sites like Flickr or Multiply.
Friendster has no other options as the traffic and active-user count have almost flat-lined over the time. Its current owner, Malaysia Internet company MOL Global, bought the site in late 2009 for rumored $26 million price tag. Friendster's new identity is not yet unveiled but it is appearing to be positioning itself as a casual gaming destination.
Unless Friendster is able to pull off a Phoenix-like rise from the ashes, it will be yet another casualty of the Facebook empire, which has nearly stomped out other competitors like MySpace on its path to total Internet domination. Games and other apps have exploded on the platform, giving birth to companies like FarmVille maker Zynga and, often, netting Facebook a share of their profits.
In an ironic twist, Facebook currently owns the patents on many social-networking features Friendster helped popularize. Facebook quietly purchased Friendster's patent portfolio from MOL last year, giving it the intellectual-property rights to inventions like connecting users within social networks, linking relationship information with outside databases, and compelling users to upload and share their own content.
No comments:
Post a Comment