Facebook Replaces Friendster
Friendster is gradually being deserted by its once overwhelming number of members. Rare occasional updates by my not so close friends whenever I login are the norm nowadays. What good is a social networking site if it is not able to connect you to your friends?
In short, whether or not a social networking site has fulfilled its purpose depends on its members’ population. The bigger the population, the bigger the hub and that is how you connect. Speaking of which, Friendster’s fiercest competitor; Facebook is progressing very rapidly with many members from Friendster jumping ship.
What is so great about Facebook that it is able to tempt many to boycott Friendster?
Though they may share the same social networking capabilities but what separates Facebook from Friendster are the applications available to interaction with friends on another level.
I will be the first to admit. I am not really a fan of applications as they tend to get boring after a while. The applications I have installed are those which I feel I would be able to put to good active use throughout my stay in Facebook.
A commendable service that Facebook has implemented is providing an API whereby developers can use to create their own applications, this brings a diverse yet creative touch to the applications available to Facebook’s users.
With Facebook’s emergence, I have not seen Friendster taking any counter-measures to convince their current members to stay on. If this continues, it is only a matter of time before Facebook becomes the most dominant social networking site in Singapore.
rumour has it that friendster is goign to be launching something revolutionary soon… but i guess only time will tell
Coincidentally I was having a discussion with a friend about facebook earlier today. Here in asia, we see that facebook and friendster are the main competitor. Whereas in the US where facebook orginated, it is fighting with myspace for users, and it is gaining ground.
Perhaps the reason for facebook’s success is that its initial target market was College (or university depending on where you are from) students. There are probably numerous factors as well like the applications which you have mentioned. But then again facebook was the USA’s number 2 social networking website before it introduced its API platform and back then the best interaction was good old fashion POKING. The applications is probably the reason for its rapid growth internationally.
Friendster is on Google’s Opensocial initiative if I am not wrong.
If Friendster are really going to be launching something revolutionary, they have to do it quick. At the rate they are losing members, they might have to start from scratch all over again.
There do are many other social networking sites, multiply, hi5 along with myspace, I am not sure of the rest though. The applications is a huge draw factor.
According to the pro-facebook members I spoke to, the applications really livens things up.
Yes Friendster is on Google’s OpenSocial initiative. However this option contradicts with what Friendster is doing.
They have a common API with which to build your applications, but they have nowhere to insert them on the site (at least I can’t find them). Then again, with the rumour about Friendster launching something revolutionary, this could be one of the many features which might come in place.
Keep up the good work!
Hmmm, I am tempted to try this.