Vohra+A.+strategy+report

Vohra A.

TO: Proximity Social Network Group FROM: Azeem Vohra DATE: February 27, 2010 SUBJECT: Friendster's strategy analysis

We were asked to do strategy analysis on Friendster. Friendster is a primary global online social networking site. According to Friendster’s official web site, it has more than 110 million members worldwide. As Friendster provides an easy service to its users in social networking, however it depends on the Gen Y users to embrace Friendster as their primary social network to stay in contact with friends, family, social groups, activities, school, and interests.

Friendster is a social networking site which enables users around the world to stay connected with friends and family. Friendster was founded in 2002 by computer programmers Jonathan Abrams and Cris Emmanuel in Mountain View, California. The official launched of Friendster was in March 22, 2002. The largest traffic of the world’s leading social network comes from Asia. Now company’s headquarters is in Sydney, Australia.
 * Profile **

According to an article by Bernama.com, Friendster has partnered up with payment provider MOL AccessPortal Bhd to generate revenue from Gen Y users around the South Asian market and users around the world.

The primary force for Friendster is the competitive advantage by other social networking sites which provides user with more features. Friendster not only competes with social networking site but also, competes with other live messaging sites. Since many social networking sites like Friendster does not require users to have contract, it gives users a privilege to switch over to another site of their interest. Friendster did lose a lot of its market in North America due to competitive social networking sites like Facebook, My Space, LinkdIn and Twitter. Even though, Friendster has lost its competitiveness in North America, it is still the primary global social networking site which is reaching out to users around the world to use new features.
 * Competitive Landscape **

**Friendster’s Strategy** As a leading website based on traffic from Asia, Friendster has chosen to fight with other social networking website by partnering with the world’s most leading web company Yahoo! (Friendster.com); to attract its costumer from south East Asia’s by providing new product features and services. The partnership incorporates: 1) There is going to be a Friendster application on Yahoo! home page and tool bar. 2) Friendster will promote Yahoo! web mail, Yahoo! messenger, and additional yahoo products and services over time. 3) Users will be able to customize Friendster search result on Yahoo! 4) Users will be able to publish Friendster’s update on Yahoo! Accounts. 

Another Strategy Friendster has decided to work with is, by focusing with its parenting company MOL to generate more revenue. This will allow Friendster to attract more users from Southeast Asia to do "social shopping" on their social networking site. This will allow Friendster to record, "over RM500 million in revenue within two years from RM350 million currently, driven by its latest partnership with Friendster Inc"(Bernama.com).

Last but not least in this competitive market, Friendster has decided to target Thailand because it is the fastest growing country toward social networking. According to MOL AccessPortal CEO Ganesh Bangha, "Friendster.com currently had 115 million users, and in Thailand, it has around 1 million users, but most of them are not active"(Asia one). If these users become active for Friendster and uses this social networking website for "social shopping," it may generate tons of revenue for the company.

Although Friendster may dominate its name in United States by proving new product features and services Gen Y to use for social networking purposing. Since Friendster has the easiest application to use for Gen Y users, it needs to attract users by new features in market and provide more application to be compatible other social networking group such as; Face book, Twitter, and MySpace. In order for Friendster to take over US market and still be the global leader in social networking, I believe Friendster should provide its users with new application that may be used by other social networking group like for example face book. These application must be easy to use so, that Friendster does not lose it’s dominate market in Asia. Since Friendster has partner with Yahoo! To target south East Asia, Friendster should also look forward to market itself in US with Yahoo! to keep it’s dominate position in the social networking industry. 
 * Gen Y Implication **

//About Friendster // (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2010, from []
 * References **

//FRIENDSTER LAUNCHES STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH YAHOO! SOUTHEAST ASIA // (2010, January 12). Retrieved March 5, 2010, from []

//MOL GLOBAL TO ACQUIRE FRIENDSTER // (2009, December 10). Retrieved March 5, 2010, from []

//Friendster.com targets Thailand // (2010, January 19). Retrieved March 5, 2010, from Google News. []

//MOL AccessPortal Targets RM500 Million Revenue In Two Years // (2009, October 15). Retrieved March 5, 2010, from Google News. []