When software package engineer Jonathan Abrams go far in Silicon Valley in 1996 , the cyberspace was known for three things : huge amounts of entropy , pornography , and anonymity . If user were n’t investigating the first two , they were exploiting the third to argue about movies or politics , their unfiltered opinions unencumbered by concerns over embarrassment . People were known only by their covert handles .
Abrams , who came to California to programme for the web web web browser Netscape , had an idea . What if people could utilise their substantial names , faces , and location online ? alternatively of having an avatar , they ’d simplyuploadtheir existing personality in the form of photos , visibility , and pastime . They could socialise with others in a pellucid fashion , mingle within their existing circles to receive Modern friends or even dates . Strangers would be enclose through a mutual contact . If executed in good order , the connection would have real - world implications on kinship , something the internet rarely help at that clip .
Abrams called his concept Friendster . establish in March 2003 , it quickly grew to host gazillion of user . Google lead off talks of a remunerative buyout . Abramsshowed uponJimmy Kimmel Live , anticipating the pane - com - engine driver - as - rock candy - star template . His investors believe Friendster could generate jillion .
Instead , Friendster ’s momentum stalled . Myspace became the dominant social platform , with Facebook quickly gain ground . Abrams , who once appeared poised to collect a fortune from his creation , watched as ape sites poached his exploiter base and his influence wane . What should ’ve been a compositor’s case subject field of cyberspace success became one of the in high spirits profile casualties of the web ’s nonsensitive growth . It became too big not to fail .
Many businesses trust on a creation myth , the idea that a single inciting incidentprovides the sparkle of inspiration that turns a company from a small concern into a tax revenue - sire powerhouse . For publicity purpose , these history are just that — fictions devised to excite the press and charm consumer . Pierre Omidyar , who program AuctionWeb and later rename it eBay , was said to haveconceivedof the task to serve his wife , Pamela , find Pez dispenser for her aggregation . In fact , there were no Pez dispenser . It was a fable concoct by an eBay marketing employee who wanted to romanticise the site ’s origins .
In former press coverage of Friendster , there was picayune mention of Abrams look to monetize the burgeon opportunities available online . Instead , he was portrayed as a single man with a recently broken heart whowantedto make date light . Abrams later said there wasno truthto this origin story , though he did deduce inspiration from Match.com , a successful dating site launch in 1995 . Abrams ’s mind was to uprise something like Match.com , only with the power to match people through friends . or else of message someone out of the gloomy , you could connect via a societal referral .
When user sign up for the situation , they were onlyallowedto subject matter masses who were within six degrees of detachment or less . To help endorse unfamiliar fount , Friendster also allow user to leave " testimonials " on profiles that could exalt a person ’s virtues and perchance persuade a connection to meet up in the veridical world .
course , not all reciprocal connections were needs secure friends : They might have been acquaintance at best , and the result fooling atmosphere was more of a precursor to Tinder than Facebook . One usertoldNew YorkMagazine that Friendster was less a singles sociable and more " six degrees of how I get under one’s skin Chlamydia . "
Still , it work . The internet site ’s immediate success did not go unnoticed by venture capitalists , who had been circulate popular platform — America Online , Yahoo ! , and , later , YouTube — and throw in start - ups with millions in operating funds . At the metre , the promise of savvy business minds flipping universal resource locator for hundreds of millions or even 1000000000000 was a tangible construct , and one that Abrams keep in mind as he fielded an offer from Google in 2003 to buy Friendster for $ 30 million . It would be a windfall .
Abrams slump .
Investors — admit next PayPal co - founder Peter Thiel and Google investor K. Ram Shriram — advised Abrams that there was too much money to leave on the tabular array in return for shortsighted - terminal figure gain . Abrams opt to accept $ 13 million toward building out the land site . He sat on the instrument panel of film director and view as backers began to strategize the best path forward .
Quickly , Abrams noticed a paradigm faulting accept place . As a computer programmer , Abrams figure out job , and Friendster was facing a big one . Buoyed by press attention ( including the Kimmel appearance where Abrams turn over out safe to hearing members , presumably in anticipation of all the relationships Friendster could help facilitate ) , the site was slow down , unable to take up all of the incoming traffic . server struggled to render customized networks for each user , all of which were drug-addicted on who they were already tie to . A page sometimes took 40 seconds to load .
The investor considered lag time a mundane concern . Adding novel features was even less attractive , as that might slow the pages down further . They wanted to concenter on partnerships and on positioning Friendster as a behemoth that could attract a nine- or 10 - figure purchase price . This is what speculation capitalist did , scooping up 10 or 20 opportunities and hoping a handful might break loose into something tremendous .
But for business owners and entrepreneur like Abrams , they did n’t have a portfolio to deal with . They were concern only with their world . Its failure was all - encompassing ; there were n’t 19 other venues to turn to if affair did n’t act out .
Abrams see to it the need for a site reconfiguration . The circuit card was deaf . finally he was removed and put a role as chairman , an empty title that was take away from him in 2005 . As the board squabbled over macro issues , Abrams watched as micro issue — specifically , the website itself — deteriorated . Frustrated with wait times , users set out migrating to Myspace , which offered more customizable feature and permit voyeurs browse profile without " friending " others . Myspace attracted 22.1 million unique substance abuser monthly in 2005 . Friendster was buzz off just 1.1 million .
By 2006 , Friendster was mired in software kink and something less touchable : a departure of cachet among users who were gravitating toward other social program . Though Abrams was out , investors continue to rain cats and dogs money into Friendster in the hope that they could deduct price . In 2009 , they sold to MOL Global for $ 40 million , which would later change over the site into a social gaming terminus . But it was too late . Though the site still had an Brobdingnagian identification number of users—115 million , with 75 million come from Asia — they werepassive , barely interacting with other users . By 2011 , user datum — photos , profile , messages — was beingpurged .
In brush aside the caliber of the end - user experience , the decision - makers at Friendster had effectively buried the hope of Abrams ’s construct . They sold off his patents to Facebook in 2010 for $ 40 million . Coupled with the MOL sales agreement , it may have been a goodly gist , but one that paled in comparison to Friendster ’s electric potential . A 2006 clause inThe New York Timesreported with some degree of morbid captivation that if Abrams had accepted the Google offer of $ 30 million in 2003 in the signifier of lineage , it would ’ve speedily been worth $ 1 billion .
In the years since , Abrams has tinkered with other sites — include an evite program call Socialzr and a news monitor app called Nuzzel , which is still in military operation — and be given to Founders Den , a order and work space in San Francisco . He ’s ordinarily unemotional to discuss Friendster , believe there ’s little power point in dwelling on a overlook chance .
The situation did , ultimately , became acase studyfor Harvard Business School — though perhaps not in the elbow room investors had intended . Friendster was taught as a cautionary tarradiddle , an example that not every good theme will find its agency to succeeder .
