Social networking Web site Friendster is looking for a buyer and is shopping the site around in Asia, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post TechCrunch blog.
Friendster has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to find a party interested in acquiring the company or some of its assets, and according to the documents, the bank is looking to Asia. Marked ‘highly confidential’ and dated July 2009, the documents outline the dominance of the social network in the Asia-Pacific region and hint at plans to expand revenue streams to include virtual goods, gaming, surveys, dating, music and classifieds. The summary fact sheet is being sent to multiple potential buyers in the region, the blog stated.
One of the oldest social networks on the Web, more than 75 percent of Friendster’s 100 million users are based in Asia. Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines are noted as key markets that “are expected to experience robust internet user growth over the next few years,” according to research cited in the report. The company currently has offices in Australia, Singapore, the Philippines and the United States.
Friendster receives 2.3 billion page views from Indonesia alone each month and is the nation’s top mobile site, according to company data cited in the report. The data also stated Friendster also has more than double the users of its closest competitor in Indonesia — Facebook.
The documents contained no valuation information for the company. TechCrunch stated Friendster could be valued at around $210 million, much less than Facebook’s recent valuation of $10 billion, due to the lower spending power of consumers in Southeast Asia and possible discrepancies between the number of active users and registered users on the site.
JG
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