TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Friendster, Love and Money

Friendster, Love and Money

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Tue, 25 Jan 2005 02:45:38 -0500

January 24, 2005
By GARY RIVLIN

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 23 - Fifteen months ago, Friendster enjoyed the
kind of enviable status that Silicon Valley start-ups dream of: A-list
investors and millions of users flocking to its Web site to browse
profiles posted by friends and friends' friends, in search of dates or
playmates.

So great was the buzz surrounding the company in the second half of
2003 that Friendster, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., helped
define a hot new facet of the Internet dubbed "social networking."

People are again buzzing about Friendster. But that is because the
company, which endured three chief executives during 2004, has seen a
spate of senior executives depart in recent weeks. Just as troubling,
a younger, flashier rival called MySpace has eclipsed Friendster, at
least in the United States, among those in the most highly coveted 18
to 29 demographic. And Friendster loyalists have groused that the
company has done almost nothing to enliven its site.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/24/technology/24network.html?ex=1264222800&en=c1a0727bb84f7be4&ei=5090

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