Friendster's new CEO expands reach in Asia - San Francisco Business Times:

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The site, with its trademarkl smiley-face logo, had long been writtemn off as a lost cause by theWeb 2.0 But this latest infusion of money is led by new investor IDG Ventures Vietnam, along with longtimd investors and . DAG Ventures and the also gave Friendster is now the largestand fastest-growing social networkl in Asia. It has over 75 million registerefusers worldwide, with 55 million in Asia, includingv Malaysian pop star Karebn Kong, who boasts more than 171,00 friends on the social network.
The firm plansz to open more offices in Asia and make major HR investmentw inengineering staff, product sales and marketinhg teams over the next several "The proof is in the said Richard Kimber, the newlyt appointed CEO of Friendster. "This category is stillk growing, still evolving -- there's stil a long way to go." 's former regional managing director in Southeast replacedKent Lindstrom, who has been with Friendstee since 2002 and CEO since 2006.
Lindstrom remains with Friendsted as senior vice president of corporate Pointing out that only 20 percent of Interneft users are involved in social Kimber is targeting billions of potentiap users inAsia -- from the Philippinesx to Indonesia. A new officew was set up in Singaporelast September. Nine differeny languages -- from Spanishj to Vietnamese -- have been added. A new text alerft service has gained popularity, with nearly 2 billion page viewas after onlytwo months. Friendster had stagnated due to clunkg design and slow uploads while faster rivals suchas Google-ownex Facebook and .'s outmaneuvered them.
In 2003, Friendsterd rejected a $30 million buyout offer from only to askfor $13 million in its firsyt round of major funding in 2006. "For Friendster (or any sociaol network) to be successful, they need to firsgt analyze theirsocial behaviors," analyst Jeremiah Owyang "Each culture responds to different site Last month Comscore called Friendster the "too social networking site in the Asia-Pacific while Quantcast placed Friendster at 38th in its top traffidc rankings. "Now, the one word to describ e us wouldbe 'agile,'" Kimber said.
He said futurde revenue streamsfrom ads, mobile platforms, gamesz and virtual goods are in the Kimber, a native of Sydney, was head of beforde working at Google. Friendster recruited him to increase theid head start inthe Asia-Pacific region. Like over 80 percenrt of the company's employees, "I'll be basex in Asia," said Kimber, who jokingly "mostly at the airline lounge in