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Friday, December 11, 2009
Malaysian Firm Buys Friendster. You remember Friendster?
"Malaysian tycoon Vincent Tan announced a deal to buy Friendster, a social networking site that still retains a strong following in Southeast Asia after losing in global popularity to Facebook and MySpace.
Tan's online payment systems business will buy 100 percent of Friendster through an affiliate company, according to a joint statement Thursday."
"Malaysian-based payment on line company MOL Global's purchase of social networking site Friendster has won praises from industry observers."
The website that has mostly been forgotten around the world is till quiet popular in Southeast Asia. Friendster has 115 million members strong.
"On one hand, Friendster investors are lucky the service is popular enough with Asian teenagers for the sale to happen at all, considering users elsewhere moved on to MySpace, then Facebook and Twitter. On the other, as All Things Digital points out, if then-white-hot Friendster had sold to Google in 2003 for $30 million in Google stock, that deal would have been worth $1 billion today — ten times what MOL Global paid."
Launched in 2003 it was one of the earliest sites to establish the trend of Social Networking. It soon lost it's global popularity to sites like Facebook and Twitter. Friendster still has a strong following in The Philippians, Malaysia and Indonesia. Friendster said that 90% of the sites members are Asians and the merger was an industry changing trend.
"Kuala Lumpur-based MOL, a payment systems seller known much better in Asia than in America, announced today its acquisition of Friendster, an early-adopter social network founded in 2002 in Mountain View. The Financial Times guesstimates the sale price at$100 million. MOL’s announcement says it will retain Friendster’s office but doesn’t comment on the fate of the company’s estimated 20-70 employees. Neither company has replied to press queries yet."
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