Slashdot Mirror
Friendster Back from the Dead?
garzpacho writes "With a fresh infusion of $10 million in funding, Friendster is making a bid to rejoin the social networking A-list. The cash, from VC firm DAG Ventures, accompanies plans for a complete project redesign, a focus on adult users and a newly awarded patent for social networking. A real comeback might be unlikely, though: 'Turnaround stories for companies that draw on advanced Web technology known collectively as Web 2.0 remain unprecedented, says David Sze, a general partner at Greylock who specializes in consumer Internet companies but does not invest in Friendster. Still, Sze says Friendster doesn't need to have a MySpace-size traffic explosion to turn a profit. Says Sze in an e-mail, 'If those users are reasonably valuable and monetizable, I think [investors] can make money on their investment.''"
I think I was speak for most slashdotters with "Meh". I am still hoping for Pets.com to get back with Web 2.0.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Friendster is great, but, though I personally traffic it more than MySpace, I'll never pay to use it (or allow myself to be nickel-and-dimed for using features within it), nor will I click on any ads featured within it. Frankly, I don't see how monetization of Friendster is possible; even those of my colleagues who are "hard core" Friendster users (i.e., visiting the site daily, frequent message/picture posting, etc) have no intention of paying for the service. Too many free options exist outside of Friendster for this approach to be successful; users will simply flock to the next "free" (as in beer) social networking service should Friendster become too heavily monetized.
I think they're doomed.
This is an interesting software patent case.
If we're going on the assumption that *any* software is patentable (I don't believe this, but the courts do, so that's where we are) then web software in particular is problematic. Where does software design end and business plan begin? Friendster seems as close as web software gets to the 19th century idea of "by twiddling this pressure valve my mill is 80% more efficient" patent. There might be precedents, obviously other sites have allowed users to make connections with other users before, but the main idea of having those connections and a profile be the PRIMARY feature of the site does strike me as innovative. In early 2003 if you were in a community that latched onto friendster (I was hanging around with a bunch of New York City collegiate hipsters) it definitely had the feel of something brand new.
Of course it also illustrates the problem with software patents. Friendster had a good idea and a brief monopoly by being first, but they ignored feature requests, failed to upgrade their servers as demand increased, and dropped the ball in a number of other ways. They lost their market share fair and square to newer and better sites -- their users mostly moved to facebook, and a newer younger market took up myspace -- had they had an enforceable patent at the time, this competition wouldn't have occured. I think it's hard to take an objective stance and say that a patent would have helped the market here.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
It's easy, Friendster, just do what your competitors can't do.
1. Quit having unexpected errors every 10 minutes
2. Actual search functions that allow exact matches, etc. Not a fake search engine that returns everything.
3. No huge influx of Brazilian users
4. Don't allow customization of pages to the point of saturating a T1 connection upon viewing.
5. Actual active moderators(in message boards, etc).
6. No spyware-deploying ads.
7. No private profiles. No purpose of a private profile on a social networking site.
8. No orkut-like invite system. No new user filtration like facebook has.
9. And the big one: no spambots allowed. Captchas, ACTIVE IP banning, and numerous other defenses. Myspace is losing the war on this.
If Friendster can set a solid ground with doing the above, maybe they can get some converts from those who are tired of myspace's problems.