Left for dead not that long ago, social networking site Friendster is alive, kicking and has just hauled in a boatload of cash. The company just closed a $20 million round of funding, led by IDG Ventures, with participation from previous investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Benchmark Capital. It also named a new CEO, Richard Kimber, previously the head of South Asian operations and business partnerships at Google Inc. [GOOG].
Friendster was the first of the social networks on the scene, but fell out of favor with users because of technical problems with the site. It eventually was passed up by upstarts MySpace.com and Facebook. But the company found a niche overseas, particularly in Asia. According to stats from the company, the top three countries accessing its site are the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. It claims to have gained more than 29 million registered users in the past year and 17 million monthly unique visitors.
Now it's time for Friendster to turn those users into cash, something that has been a challenge for all social networks. - David Shabelman
See May 2006 post on Friendster from Tech Confidential
See Aug. 4 post from paidContent.org
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