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Rumor Alert: Silicon Beat has news on rumor that Google may buy Friendster. Goodle offered $30 million for friendster in 2003. Current asking price is less than $5 million.
This comes on the tail of recent rumors that Kleiner Perkins put another $5-12 million into Friendster.
Technorati Tags: friendster
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Blog reactions
7 responses so far ↓
1
Amy Andersen, Founder, Linx Dating LLC (Check me out!)
// Feb 10, 2006 at 3:50 pm
I hope that is only a rumor and nothing more. Friendster’s technology seems already outdated and has since completely fallen behind with the performance of myspace and general interest heading in that direction, amongst interest in other types of technologies that I have data on. I run a high end dating network that is local per the Bay Area and have a ton a research that indicates eligible professional men and women do not seek a site like friendster to meet up with other eligible men and women. I think Jonathan was first to market on a very interesting concept, got a ton of VC dough, but never really captured market share due to lack of bandwidth. This I never understand, esp. when a company gets backed by a top VC firm, i.e. Kleiner. Anyways, I think Friendster is excellent for people to meet up together in a very causal environment but it does nothing to keep it selective. I think it is ideal for Gen Y types of those between Gen Y and X to chat and expand their social networks. I would be extremely surprised if Google were to purchase Friendster, considering Google is visionary and seems to capture companies/concepts that are cutting edge.
Thank you for listening~
Amy Andersen
President & Founder
Linx Dating LLC
http://www.linxdating.com
Are you linked?
2
relaxedguy (Check me out!)
// Feb 10, 2006 at 4:14 pm
I’m not sure about the technology being outdated, do agree that first to market does not always = success. I can’t believe that Kleiner would put in more money, especially with valuation from $200M down to $2M. Tagworld just raised $7 million from DFJ, who hit it huge with Skype and Tagged got $7 million from Mayfield. I still like Tribe the best, although there are so many to try, where is my portable profile already?
3
Mark Brooks (Check me out!)
// Feb 11, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Someone please give Friendster a good home and save it. They were ‘outfriendstered’ by MySpace and Facebook. 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 may represent the biggest ‘threat’ to the online dating industry in the long term.
Mark Brooks
Editor
http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com
4
relaxedguy (Check me out!)
// Feb 11, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Whomever buys it, I hope they keep it whole so Friendster doesn’t suffer what happened to SpringStreet. Facebook and Myspace are being viewed with a critical eye by schools, parents and legislators. I wouldn’t be surprised if the list of schools banning access continues to grow. TMI- too much information.
5
Amy Andersen, Founder, Linx Dating LLC (Check me out!)
// Feb 13, 2006 at 4:12 pm
What about Tribe.net do you like? Sub communities are a very compelling tool for being able to link up with one another, i.e., like-minded people. From an anthropological/socio anthro perspective Tribe’s concept is very cool. Does anyone know how
many users are part of Tribe? ~AA
6
Vijaymateti (Check me out!)
// Feb 16, 2006 at 6:39 am
It seems to be quite opposite! But EPIC 2014 predicted Microsofts aquisition of Friendster to batle with google on Orkut. But this time google is not going to give any edge. Kool! :)
7
Jim (Check me out!)
// Mar 11, 2006 at 1:04 am
Frienster right now is still trailing behind in popularity compared to MySpace,but then MySpace has also been known for have sex offenders on there.They also now allow you to customize your profile like MySpace but trying to find the sites is still a little bit hard.
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