Friendster is a privately owned internet social networking website and the first online social network. Its headquarters are in
Mountain View, CA, US Friendster is focused on helping people meet new friends, stay in touch with old ones and sharing online content and media.
] The website is also used for dating and discovering new events, bands, hobbies, and more. Users can share content including videos, photos, messages and comments with friends via their profile and their network.
Friendster has over 90 million registered users and over 61 million unique visitors a month globally. The website receives approximately 19 billion page views per month making it a top 20 global website based on web traffic.
Over 90% of Friendster’s traffic comes from Asia. In Asia, Friendster has more monthly unique visitors than any other social network. The top 15 countries accessing Friendster today are the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, the United States, Singapore, Canada, India, Australia, the UK, Hong Kong, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, China, Taiwan and Korea.
History
Friendster was founded by computer programmer Jonathan Abrams in 2002 in Mountain View, California and was the first to introduce virtual communities and online social networking before the creation, launch and adoption of MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and others
Friendster was founded to create a safer, more effective environment for meeting new people by browsing user profiles and connecting to friends, friends of friends and so on, allowing members to expand their network of friends more rapidly than in real life, face-to-face scenarios.
Friendster.com went live in March 2003 and was quickly adopted by three million users within the first few months Publications including Time, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, US Weekly and Spin wrote about Friendster’s success and the founder appeared on magazine covers and late-night talk shows.
Today, Friendster continues to enjoy a membership base of more than 90 million registered users and continues to grow, especially in Asia In August 2008, Friendster hired ex-Google executive Richard Kimber as the CEO Kimber, who was previously the regional managing director of South Asia at Google, is focusing on Friendster’s expansion in Asia. In 2003, Friendster management received a $30 million buyout offer from Google, which they declined. The company was originally funded in 2003 with a $12 million investment by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, and private investors. Friendster received another $3 million in funding in February 2006 led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Benchmark Capital In August 2006, Friendster also received $10 million in funding in a round led by DAG Ventures, and Friendster announced in August 2008 that it had raised an additional $20 million in funding in a round led by IDG Ventures Today, Friendster is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, IDG Ventures and individual investors.
