Friendster Relaunches

"Join Friendster Today - Login with Facebook"<p>I'd like to have been in the room when that discussion took place.

They were acquired in 2009 by MOL[1], an online points and payments system. MOL already has gaming infrastructure and points mechanisms built out (as well as a Friendster-branded internet cafe and licensable cafe management software[2]) - this looks like a push to gain traction for game-related payments in the US market, already popular in much of Asia. If they can start to eat away at Zynga's share, it makes a world of sense.<p>[1] <a href="http://global.mol.com/global/portal/en/Default.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://global.mol.com/global/portal/en/Default.aspx</a> [2]<a href="http://www.molglobal.net/?page_id=1325" rel="nofollow">http://www.molglobal.net/?page_id=1325</a>

Myspace is sold and friendster relaunches? We're not in a bubble, we're in a circle!

I remember back in the day, when friendster was first starting up. Some users like to have what you could refer to as 'gag' accounts, named things like "Root of All Evil". The people of friendster really didn't like that, and tried to squash all those accounts. I think it kind of streisanded them a little bit all those years ago.

I wonder if they'd do better to totally rebrand the site and shrug off the stink of "abandoned social networking website".

Is there a benefit to using the Friendster brand? Isn't it universally known as could-have-been social network? Why not just use whatever their resources are to start something fresh?

Why not just promote the new Friendster as a place to play games and soft pedal the whole social networking past?<p>Would the site be more successful if they'd chosen a different domain name?

"living the game" - angle does immediately speak alot to me as something that is not FB and not G+ etc. Gamers like their other world/networks to exist on.

Social game platform with multiple profiles? Friendster? It's already a bizarre morning.

I like that you can swap avatars based on mood. Reminds me of the good ol' days of LiveJournal.

Does this mean soon I can start ordering groceries online and have them delivered?

So, they lost the social graph game and now focus on the popular social game market. It's what zynga failed to do until now. There's huge audience and the monetization is guaranteed if they enroll virtual currency. if they can prove they can gain traction and provide a platform that is easy to convert to, I'm game.