'New' Friendster to provide more entertainment, virtual money

MANILA, Philippines - After pioneering the social networking phenomenon in 2003 and establishing a solid network of 115 million members (75 million of them in Asia), Friendster is now evolving into a bigger and better product for its users. 

Malaysian corporation MOL Global acquired Friendster several months ago, and MOL Global Group chief executive officer Ganesh Kumar Bangah says that Friendster will soon become a platform for a variety of multimedia content.

“We are in the midst of a highly confidential project; we call it Project Neutron. Basically, we transform Friendster into a social gaming portal over the next three to six months,” Bangah told Filipino reporters and media representatives at Friendster’s Philippine office in Makati City.

“You will see hundreds of games in there. We have already partnered with many game developers. Users will find it entertaining to spend time on it,” Bangah adds. “It will not be a completely different product, but an evolution.”

The upgraded Friendster will also provide users a simple, easy-to-obtain virtual currency that can be used to purchase virtual goods, online games and applications, and other products and services over the Internet. This is the result of a synergy of Friendster’s social networking infrastructure with the expertise of MOL Global in providing online payment transactions.

MOL Global has been Asia’s leading online payment service provider for more than a decade, with more than 540,000 different payment collection points in 75 countries.

As for the inevitable comparisons with Facebook, Bangah clarifies that Friendster will not be competing with the former.

“We did not buy Friendster for it to become a general social network, which is what Facebook is. We bought Friendster because of its community, which allows us to basically roll out our content and games on it,” Bangah says.

“Another reason we bought Friendster is because it has this brand that, in turn, gave our brand global recognition. It enabled us to get a lot of new partnerships as well, even a partnership with Facebook. So ironically, by buying Friendster, we actually made Facebook open their eyes and say, ‘Hey that’s a good payment system for online transactions,’” adds Bangah.

Last July, MOL Global partnered with Facebook as its payment provider for Facebook credits. These credits are used to purchase various online goods, games and other applications on Facebook.

Friendster also benefits from the MOL acquisition in several ways, according to Bangah. “We are an Asian-owned company with the financial strength, which has built successful businesses in the region. We understand this market, we are from here, and because of that I think we are able to cater to the local needs fast enough.”

The Philippine market

MOL Global also sees the Asian market, especially the Philippines, as full of untapped potential. “I find that social shopping, like in Multiply.com, is quite prevalent here in the Philippines. We are starting to see more and more micro merchants on site like these,” Bangah says.

“So you’ve got one level of growth: with more and more people accessing content. And now we’re waiting for the next level of growth, which is e-commerce, which is where the delivery elements have to come in. We are the ones who will provide that,” says Bangah.

“That’s why we see a lot of growth potential in the Philippines, both for the MOL business and the Friendster business, and we will continue to invest in this country. And we believe with Internet penetration going up, this is a big growth market for us,” he explains.

“And we are confident that as e-commerce grows, and it will grow, the payment industry will grow. It’s about being there early, building the infrastructure,” Bangah adds.