Friendster is a social gaming site focused on gaming and music based in Mountain View, California. The website was also used for dating and discovering new events, bands, and hobbies. Users could share videos, photos, messages and comments with other members via their profile and their network. It was considered one of the original and even the "grandaddy" of social networks.
The service became popular in Southeast Asia and is a major site in that region of the world. In May of 2011, the company repositioned itself into a social gaming site and discontinued user social network accounts. But Friendster accounts will not be deleted and users can still log in using their existing e-mail login and password. They also stated that contact list (or friendlist) will be preserved along with user's basic information. Friendster said that in the new and improved website, the focus will be on pure "entertainment and fun", and aims not to compete, but rather to complement Facebook.
Friendster had over 8.2 million registered users and over 1 million unique visitors a month globally; however since it deleted all content and became a gaming site, that number has dropped to 1.2 million registered users. Over 90% of Friendster's traffic came from Asia. In Asia, as of 2008, Friendster had more monthly unique visitors than any other social network. The top 10 countries accessing Friendster, according to Alexa, as of May 7, 2009 are the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Sudan, South Korea, Bangladesh and India.
