Friendster Appoints New CEO, Hoping to Revive Its Status As Trendsetting Internet Destination

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) May 25, 2005 -- SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Friendster Inc., one of the biggest startups in the "social networking" niche, appointed a new chief executive Wednesday, hoping to make the company profitable and revive its status as a trendsetting Internet destination.

Taek Kwon, executive vice president of product and technology at Citysearch.com, will join the company June 13 and replace outgoing CEO Scott Sassa, a former NBC executive who presided over Friendster last year, when it enjoyed tremendous buzz among 20-somethings and was named by Time Magazine as one of the 50 coolest Web sites.

But despite having more than 16 million registered members, the privately held Mountain View-based startup has failed to turn a profit. Investors now seem more interested in trends ranging from blogging to digital music services.

Social networking sites require subscribers to provide demographic information such as where they live, what they do in their spare time, what music they enjoy, and whether they're in a serious relationship. The sites then provide links to other people with similar profiles.

Social networking is part of a broader business category called "knowledge management technology," which includes instant messenger and collaborative editing tools that allow numerous people to work on a project even if they're separated by thousands of miles.

Although consumers have embraced such tools -- particularly IM -- entrepreneurs have struggled to turn them into profitable businesses. Many corporations have refused to spend money to buy new software, instead encouraging workers to take advantage of free downloads.

Business experts say the best hope for Friendster and similar startups is to develop unique software and large subscriber bases to attract a potential buyer such as Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. or IBM Corp.

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