Friday, January 9, 2009

Friendster? Really?!

On the iconic American TV show Saturday Night Live, comedians Seth Myers and Amy Poehler have a regular segment called "Really?", in which they take a ridiculous fact and make merciless fun of it for a few minutes. (Here's a recent example, from when New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was caught with his pants down with a hooker from New Jersey.)

In that spirit: Friendster is hugely popular in Indonesia? Really?! Nothing against that particular social network, but in the U.S. at least, Friendster was popular about five years ago and then faded fast into oblivion. But according to tech blogger extraordinaire Budi Putra, a full 60% of Indonesian Internet users have a Friendster account.

Say wha? It's like hearing about a friend who's really into 8-track cassettes. I remember reading Wall Street Journal stories and PBS reports that remarked on Friendster's downfall, along with the strange fact that it was still popular in the Phillipines. It seems we can add Indonesia to that list.

As a Facebook addict myself, I have an interest in seeing all my buddies in one place, and not gathering on a dying platform. At least I can take comfort in the other bit of Budi's news, which is that Facebook is the fastest-growing social network in Indonesia, with a 645% growth rate in 2008 and over 800,000 Indonesians already getting on board. At a population of hundreds of millions, though, Facebook still has a long way to go.


Today's Top Stories

The local Bernie Madoff??

Huge Indonesian coal investment on the way

New poll has him only trailing Megawati in the east

Don't book your Palestine tickets yet

10 comments:

Therry said...

I'm one of those 60% people who own a Friendster account. I closed it last year but some friends kept bugging me to join because they didn't want to use Facebook ("too difficult to use" and "can't be bothered to open another social networking account" were mostly the excuses I got).

I only access it whenever I remember - which is not often!

Can I add you on Facebook?

Christopher Taylor said...

I even have a Friendster account too. But it's frozen in time from five years ago.

But of course find me on Facebook! :)

Brett said...

We'll probably be saying the say thing about Facebook in 5 years... I'm ALREADY bored with it! ;-)

Christopher Taylor said...

True dat! MySpace seems already headed in that direction ...

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's not all wrong about the percentage, I have also a Friendster account although I don't check it on regular basis, at least not as often as I use Facebook - but it's there.

Christopher Taylor said...

That'd be an interesting story ... all those old profiles sitting out there on the Web ... like high-tech time capsules!

Therry said...

To be honest, I'm getting bored with Facebook as well. All these social networking sites are addictive and if I'm not careful it might distract me from actually doing something productive! LOL

Already added you on Facebook, am just waitin for you to accept :)

Christopher Taylor said...

I tend to go back and forth ... hot and cold, as the Katy Parry song says ... but I figure it's never a bad thing to keep in touch with people.

BTW consider yourself accepted!

Therry said...

Your kids are gorgeous!!!!!!!!

Christopher Taylor said...

You're too kind. But future heartbreakers, indeed!

And congrats on the engagement ...