14 DAY TRIAL // Friendster, the social network that pretty much started the whole thing, is apparently looking to sell either the whole company or just part of it. It has hired consulting firm Morgan Stanley to help it look for suitors and the financial company seems to be focused on the Asian market to look for potential buyers, according to TechCrunch citing some documents it has acquired.
The focus on the Asian market is no coincidence as most of the social network's audience comes from that region, with the company itself claiming that 75 percent of its registered users are from Asian-Pacific region. Friendster may only have a small presence in the rest of the world but is still larger than Facebook in some regions, for example in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines (SIMP) where it has a 42 percent share of the Internet population compared to Facebook's 14 percent.
The social network also boasts 100 million registered users worldwide and is still growing with 100,000 new users and 500 million page views daily putting it in the top 20 websites worldwide if the figures are accurate. Meanwhile, Facebook has more than 250 million users world wide and is still growing at rapid pace. Still, its dominance in the Asian region is touted as a major advantage for potential buyers, outweighing Facebook almost four to one in the SIMP countries, with 20.3 million registered users versus 5.5 million.
The company sees this as its greatest advantage and is looking for a buyer that wants to enter the market with a powerful presence, as Friendster claims it would be hard for a newcomer to make headway at a fast pace and touting its already established business relations in the region. The social network also has offices in Singapore and the Philippines. Another advantage also put forward in addition to the strong presence in Asia are the patents that the company holds in the social networking area with five being granted and ten awaiting approval.