Will You Be My Friendster?

I must admit that I am a member of online social networking. With a busy work and life schedule, it’s been hard keeping in touch with friends and networking sites like Facebook have made it a bit easier. Now, I get up to date information on my friends and can send them quick messages just by logging on to the website from anywhere. Thus, the application allows me to connect with friends who have different schedules and lifestyles.

Many different social networking sites have turned up around the world including MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, Orkut, etc. While they all have their own appeal and unique features, MySpace and Facebook have significantly prevailed in the market. Though Friendster was one of the first sites to offer social networking on a large scale and was even awarded a patent for its social networking concept, it has lost significant customer base because of its slow technology, its limited features, and its basic interface design.

Long-time users of Friendster may not want to experience the switching costs of joining another networking site, but they will experience long viewing and uploading wait times. This is due to limitations of the site’s hardware and bandwidth. Friendster’s lacking technology has not only caused user delay within the application, it has also hindered users from adding fun applications to increase socialization. While one can search for specific individuals (knowing their first and last name or email address), features that allow performing a mass search, based on one’s school or email network, are not available. Further, although there is a message board on Friendster where friends can type “testimonials” for people in their network, the page is not set up to maximize space effectively. Advertisements seem to occupy almost 25% of prime “real estate” on the profile page and the user’s various profile sections can’t be minimized to occupy less space thus making the site less customizable. These design flaws contribute to making Friendster look disorganized and chaotic.

It is also unclear what market segment Friendster is targeting. While Facebook targets generally college or post-college based users and MySpace targets high school and non-college affiliated users, Friendster has not clearly defined its niche. Initially the site focused on online dating but competitors such as dating websites seemed to snatch much of that market share from Friendster as well.

Although Friendster has built a large brand name and has revolutionized early online social networking, it has seen a huge user turnover. At this point, the site can either fix its various limitations or merge with another firm that will help to reinvent it. It should also try to appeal to an untouched part of the market by adding a unique application. For instance, the site could add a fantasy sports application where users could make predictions on game and player outcomes. This would not only help expand Friendster’s user base but also offer them another means of interacting.

Social networking is here to stay as long as we use the Internet for communication and our increasingly hectic lives limit the time we have to spend with friends. In order to take advantage of this growing trend, social networking websites must continuously revitalize and offer unique and leading-edge features to their customers.