Friendster

Who’s Ready for the (Heaven Forbid) Social Networking Patent Wars?

Liz Gannes in Social on February 9 at 7:00 am PT

Just in case patent wars happen to be contagious, it seems worth evaluating which social networking players are best-equipped.

Voices

Facebook’s IPO Marks the End of the Web 2.0 Era: The Social Web Is the New King

Michael Jones, CEO, Science in Voices on February 3 at 10:47 am PT

I recently spent the weekend at a unique event that brought founders, entrepreneurs and investors together. I was fortunate enough to spend time with the original pioneer of social networking.

Voices

Kleiner Perkins Invests in Facebook at $52 Billion Valuation

Scott Austin, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on February 14, 2011 at 8:13 am PT

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Facebook are together at last. VentureWire reports today that Kleiner is taking a small stake in Facebook by buying as much as $38 million of stock from other shareholders at a valuation of $52 billion.

Greylock's Reid Hoffman and David Sze on the Future of Social (Video)

Liz Gannes in Social on December 29, 2010 at 11:39 am PT

Greylock partners Reid Hoffman and David Sze share their predictions for the social Web in a video interview. They also tell us some segments they would like to invest in, such as the integration of physical and virtual experiences and ways to apply network effects to work.

Voices

Almost Famous: Kent Lindstrom of PlacePop

Drake Martinet, Intern, All Things Digital in Social on April 30, 2010 at 3:41 am PT

This week, we stopped by Ooga Labs, a little incubator on Market Street in San Francisco, to meet Kent Lindstrom, CEO of PlacePop. PlacePop is an iPhone app and Web site, advertised as a check-in sharing service like Foursquare, but without the game. Hmm… a start-up touting that it does LESS, you say? And the CEO used to run Friendster? We had to see about this.

Voices

How Facebook Is Making Friending Obsolete

Julia Angwin, Editor, Digits, The Wall Street Journal in News on December 15, 2009 at 12:26 pm PT

Friending wasn’t used as a verb until about five years ago, when social networks such as Friendster, MySpace and Facebook burst onto the scene. Suddenly, our friends were something even better – an audience. If blogging felt like shouting into the void, posting updates on a social network felt more like an intimate conversation among friends at a pub.

Friendster’s Cautionary Tale Ends in $100 Million Sale

Peter Kafka in Media on December 10, 2009 at 4:46 am PT

There aren’t a lot of start-up stories in which a nine-figure sale is considered a bummer, but this is one of them: Friendster, the site that once defined social networking, has been sold to Malaysia’s MOL Global at a fraction of its old value.

Wait…Friendster Still Exists?

John Paczkowski in Social on December 4, 2009 at 8:10 am PT

Yes it does. And what’s more, the social networking pioneer will reportedly be sold to a buyer in Asia by the end of the month. Price: Somewhere around $100 million.

Mr. Hulu Gets a New Gig: Former NBC Digital Boss George Kliavkoff Goes to Hearst

Peter Kafka in Media on March 16, 2009 at 7:50 am PT

George Kliavkoff, who left his job as NBC Universal’s chief digital officer last year, has a new, similar-sounding gig: He’s going to work at at Hearst, where he’ll run digital operations for entertainment head Scott Sassa.

Friendster: The Orkut of Asia

John Paczkowski in News on August 5, 2008 at 2:01 pm PT

If Orkut is the Facebook of Brazil, then Friendster is the Orkut of Asia. The company, which created the social-networking market only to forfeit it to Myspace and Facebook, is apparently doing quite well in Asia. So much so, that it’s used its success on that continent to secure some new venture funding and a CEO with a Google pedigree.