Remember Friendster, the site that initially sparked off the social networking craze in 2002 causing a small world phenomenon? However, since then it faced stiff competition with sites such as MySpace and Facebook and dropped off the radar for sometime.
In March 2007, the Mountain View, California based company which is made up of just 35 people made headlines again with its announcement to enter a multi-year partnership with Google who will be providing search and targeted advertising support.
The deal which was finalised this morning, will see both organisations entering a win-win situation. Google’s search engine will allow Friendster users to easily search the Web via a Google search bar from the top center of every page of the Friendster.com website. The search results will be presented within a Friendster page with natural search results and sponsored links clearly noted, saving users time by not having to navigate off Friendster to conduct web searches and get to use Google's powerful search technologies to do so. On the other side, Google’s advertisers will have greater access to one of the largest online social networking communities in the world.
The keywords-targeted text and display advertising components of the deal may potentially increase Friendsters profit margin but being a privately held organisation, Friendster normally does not talk about its financials and declined to confirm that statement.
“Unfortunately we don’t talk about revenue…we are privately held so we can’t…but I can say that it’s a big win for both us and Google,” Jeff Roberto, Marketing Director of Friendster said in an interview with SDA Asia.
“Friendster has a big footprint in this region and Google has a new office in Singapore. With our (Friendster’s) reach in the region, Google’s web search will get a lot of exposure. Additionally, Friendster is now giving its user base access to a great search engine.”
Friendster currently has some 44 million users in 75 countries. Although it struggles to maintain a country-neutral base many have tagged it as an Asian business because its popularity in South East Asia supersedes that in the US or UK. More than 70 percent of Friendsters traffic today comes from South East Asia. According to site tracker Alexa, Friendster is the No.1 site in The Philippines and No. 2 in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Friendster currently holds the 22nd position in Alexa’s list of Global Top 500 sits browsed trailing behind competitors MySpace which holds the sixth spot and Google’s own social networking site Orkut which is in eighth position.
However, its looks like Friendster is set to maintain its competitiveness with a slew of new enhancements and offerings that it announced recently.
Reinforcing its slogan to allow users around the globe to connect and communicate easily, Friendster introduces its new Global Schools feature. With this feature, users can now search for long lost ex-classmates and alumni friends and get back in touch with them. There is also a Classifieds section where users can post their resumes, put up sale notices, get babysitting or event services and even look for date!
One noteworthy feature that Friendster has come up with is its Fan Profile segment. This feature allows artists, bands, athletes, bloggers and celebrities alike to establish their presence and create awareness by starting their own page which will give them the potential to meet an unlimited number of fans and grow their fan base 24/7, even when they are not online.
Roberto told SDA Asia that Friendster has already been working with a number of artists who have been beta testing this feature for six months before the official launched and many of them saw their fan base increase by the hundreds. Although Friendster is aiming to reach an established global audience, most of the artists and bands that have signed up to this feature so far seem to be independent artists within the Asia Pacific Region, looking for their big break, with the exception of Senator Hillary Clinton who also happens to be a Friendster Fan Profile User.
SDA Asia understands from Roberto that Friendster has in its future plans to promote these artists through events and sponsorship of offline events. Other future plans include introducing more dimensions to connect on, better site experience and design and more ways to subscribe to content of particular interest.
With these new enhancements and the fresh deal with Google, Roberto believes that Friendster will be able to maintain its 22nd spot and maybe even move up the ladder. However, the social networking sites' number one focus will still remain on its users and its dedication to maintaining an interactive, clean and user friendly site. |
