Category: Uncategorized

CBS MARKETWATCH — May 25 — Friendster to announce Wednesday that CEO Scott Sassa has resigned according to a Tuesday all-staff meeting.  Former NBC exec, Sassa will be replaced by Taek Kwon, EVP of product at Citysearch.com; to begin June 13.  Sassa will remain through the summer to facilitate a transition.  Kwon was chosen because of his technical background and is expected to focus on technology improvements.  Sassa is known for developing "The West Wing," "Law & Order," and "Fear Factor."  He replaced former Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle, an early Friendster investor. Sassa ushered in an advertising business model.  One year later, the company has roughly the same number of employees, and is expected to generate about $10 million in annual sales. But it's not yet profitable.  Friendster started a trend whereby other social-networking sites, like Google's Orkut and Tribe.net started.

SUN-SENTINEL — May 26 — "I wasn't the right person to go forward," said Sassa. "I thought that where the company was, we wanted someone more versed in technology.  It's certainly not like we're building buggy whips when cars are just coming into fashion.  Social networking is just in the early innings, and Friendster is a great brand."  The Mountain View company also said it had laid off five employees, leaving a staff of 50.  "When the original innovator is ostracized from his company, I think that puts it in jeopardy," said Sean Parker, a founder of Plaxo and Napster and now president of Thefacebook. 

Mark Brooks: Jonathan (Friendster founder) is friends with Sean.  Friendster is backed by VC's Kleiner Perkins (Sun, Amazon, AOL), Benchmark (ebay, AOL, ofoto)  and Battery Ventures (infoseek, akamai) along with a number of individual investors.  I interviewed Jan, the new CEO of Tribe two weeks ago and will interview the new Friendster CEO for the beginning of July.  Let me know your ideas for questions I should ask him.  Before Citysearch, Taek was VP Engineering at Hotwire.

CANADIAN PRESS — May 24 — Lemontonic, a networking software firm, is selling its online dating business for $15.2 million in shares of Silverback Media before merging with another company. The reorganization will be a non-arm's-length transaction.  Lemontonic will then merge with Pioneering Technology.  Pioneering has taken three products from concept to commercialization: the Battery Eliminator, the Safe-T-element and the Powergrill ignition system.

Mark Brooks: Some creative financing.  Interesting they describe themselves as a 'networking software firm?'  Lemontonic's Alexa rank is a semi-respectable 19k and growing (11k today).

PRWEB — May 23 —  Visitors of dating site 4ppl may search for members and see their location on a detailed map.  BoonEx and AEwebworks Dating Software Development, two online dating software development companies announced the new system which uses Google Maps. 

Mark Brooks: AEwebworks (based in Kyrgyzstan) charges $690 for it’s online dating software.  Step 1 – Setting up an online dating site – $690.  Step 2 – Building the membership to critical mass – $3 million.

PRNEWSWIRE — May 23 — Online phone directories make it easy to take a person’s phone number and use it to look up that person’s name, address, and other personal information. Enter MyPrivateLine.com, a private way to receive phone calls while protecting the identity of your real phone number.

Mark Brooks: A throw away number for 15c a minute. 

UCSD GUARDIAN  — May 23 — The Facebook, launched in February 2004, now has an office, permanent employees and more than $12 million invested in stocks, as well as 2.6 million users at 730 colleges across the nation, Moskovitz said.  “I plan on adding 100 new schools this weekend,” Moskovitz said. This summer, Facebook plans on doing some “aggressive hiring” with hopes of making a lot of things a lot better. Specifically, Moskovitz said he hopes to improve on groups and parties and make the system faster and more reliable.   Most sites, such as Friendster, are open networks, but Thefacebook is closed.  This ensures that users are tied together mainly by their schools; therefore, they are meeting people with whom they already have something in common. Zuckerburg started a small Web site for a laugh to find the hottest students at Harvard. The site, Facemash.com, was shut down within 12 hours by the administration.  Facebook launched the following week. Within the next week, half of the Harvard undergraduates had signed up and Zuckerburg enlisted his roommate, economics major Moskovitz, to help move the site to other campuses. “We never market anything,” says Moskovitz. “Everything is word-of-mouth.” It makes money through advertisers that want to target college students. 

Mark Brooks: Friendster was the catalyst…social networks do well under tighter and tighter verticals.  i.e. LinkedIn for business, Facebook for college connections, myspace for music oriented.  Friendster could have capitalised on users needs for grouping their friends in ever diminishing circles, by allowing users to form multiple closed networks.  The connectors are driving the social networking boon, and they simply have too many contacts to be able to organise them easily.  Noone really delivered an easy way for the power users/connectors to do sort their contacts conveniently.

ARIZONA DAILY STAR — May 23 — For today’s high school graduates, there’s plenty of options for keeping in touch.  LiveJournal.com is basically an online diary friends can view.  Sites like Friendster.com and MySpace.com can introduce you to your friend’s friend’s former roommate.  Reunion.com and Classmates.com are devoted to ensuring old schoolmates never lose contact with each other in the real world.  Classmates.com has 60 million users.

Mark Brooks: I lost my black book of university contacts whilst adventuring across the US in an RV after graduating.  In 2000 I worked on eturn.com which was an early form of plaxo (anyone remember planetall.com).  Finally these sites have taken off.  My best avenue for fingind my UK friends is www.friendreunited.co.uk which is huge in UK.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS — May 19 — "You need plumbing work done, you go to a plumber.  You're looking for the right person, you go to a matchmaker."  The Rochesters opened their doors five years ago www.thematchmakerofmaine.com.  The matchmaking process starts with a free, in-depth interview that can last up to two hours. Once the Rochesters find a potential match, they contact both parties and proceed if there's a mutual interest. They'll even go to the initial meeting to help break the ice.  The cost ranges from $275 for an introductory membership to $575 for a year of unlimited introductions.  Some matchmakers charge $1,000 for their services, while celebrity matchmaker Samantha Daniels, who was the basis for the TV show "Miss Match," charges $10,000.  Tom Rochester said their main client base is singles in their 40s, with 30 being the young end of the age group and 60 being the high end. 50% are divorced, most have advanced education degrees and the majority are successful in their careers but aren't interested in the bar scene. 

The full article was originally published at Bangor News, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Online dating companies can learn a lot from real world matchmakers.  The two worlds need to ally.  Bottle the real world services online and you have the makings of a very profitable service.

PRWEB — May 20 — Many who've tried on-line dating speak of finding someone who seems great, making a date to meet in person, and then being frustrated by the lack of face to face chemistry.  Enter Rachael Lorenz, a personal stylist based in San Francisco.  "Younger types, the no-life-work-addicts, have invested so much energy in their careers that their romantic lives have not been a priority. As a result when they finally go on a date, they don't have a clue. Another group of men are those that I call "neo-daters" – these are guys who've been married and divorced and are just getting back into the dating scene – they're usually over 40. They've forgotten what they learned in their twenties about how to present themselves – this makes them so self conscious that they make goof after goof.  I start with the wardrobe and hair, and work through basic elements of etiquette for a total dating makeover." http://www.rachaellorenz.com 

Mark Brooks: Interesting before and after example shows a guy Miami style with no socks.  Definite improvement.  Guess I need to lose the socks then?

DAYTONA BEACH NEWS JOURNAL — May 16 — Kent was on a tour of Asia with other college students last summer when he heard people saying, ‘Oh, this would be a perfect facebook picture.’ Thefacebook is a free site that connects college students, faculty and recent alumni and boasts 2.4 million users at 573 campuses. People use it to learn more about hot classmates, track down information on homework, sign friends’ "walls," and generally waste time. Users must have an e-mail address connected to a member institution. Some students are using a similar site, collegeclub.com.

DAYTONA BEACH NEWS JOURNAL — May 16 — Kent was on a tour of Asia with other college students last summer when he heard people saying, ‘Oh, this would be a perfect facebook picture.’ Thefacebook is a free site that connects college students, faculty and recent alumni and boasts 2.4 million users at 573 campuses. People use it to learn more about hot classmates, track down information on homework, sign friends’ "walls," and generally waste time. Users must have an e-mail address connected to a member institution. Some students are using a similar site, collegeclub.com.