14 DAY TRIAL // Friendster, the social network which started it all, just got significant revamp with a design focused more on its demographic core at the moment, ahead of a possible sale by the end of the year. Barely a day after it revealed its new design, Reuters reports that the social network will be sold to an Asian investor for more than $100 million and the deal should be announced by the end of the year.
The company has been looking to sell for a while now, the latest rumor comes from last summer, but it had similar intentions as early as 2005. The social network became extremely popular very quickly after being launched in 2002. It didn't last long though and soon MySpace, and later Facebook, would come fast from behind to steal the glory. Friendster is still pretty much alive, but its popularity in most parts of the world has dwindled to the point where its more of a historic footnote.
Friendster claims it has 75 million registered users at the moment, though how many of those are active users is a mystery, and that 90 percent of its current traffic comes from the Asia-Pacific region. This last part is the key part, as the social network is still going strong in this region and so far has managed to stay ahead of Facebook and other social networks. It's not clear how long it can keep this up, but it was the major factor in selling it to an investor in the region.
Perhaps as an incentive in the sale, the social network has also launched a new design and several features which, it claims, will differentiate itself from the “plain and boring” social networks out there. But features like virtual currency, gifts and several games aren't exactly groundbreaking. In fact, most social networks have implemented similar features for a while now. More details on the pending sale should be arriving in the coming weeks.