{mosimage}With its sights firmly fixed on Asia, the popular social network is busy building up its resources to give its U.S. competitors a run for the money and management.
Google’s former managing director for South Asia, Richard Kimber, is aspiring to harness the power of social networking sites to grow revenue as the new chief executive of Friendster Inc.Friendster, the ninth most popular social networking Web site in the world based on traffic, early this week, announced ex-Googler Robert Kimber as its new CEO to lead Friendster’s global business and guide operations in Asia and the U.S., and has received $20 million in funding.
“The Web site, listed as the third largest in the social segment around the world, registers more than 75 million users worldwide.”
Kimber was brought in from Google, of all places, where he served as the regional managing director in Southeast Asia. That is the major point for Friendster, which has witnessed most of its recent growth in the Asia-Pacific region, to the point where it’s now the No. 1 social network in countries such as Singapore, as well as the Asian leader overall, according to ComScore.
Acknowledged for establishing social networking to at least one generation of young Americans, Friendster has since seen many of its U.S. member’s leave for newer and hipper communities like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo.
Friendster has been translating the site into different Asian languages and concentrating on growth there rather than attempting to patch things up in the States.
“Friendster is increasing at massive rate in Asia Pacific and is clearly leading the competition. I believe this is partly because the internet is changing the lives of everyone and it will probably become one of the greatest liberators of our time,” stated Kimber, looking forward to fully begin his activities and talking about the company with great enthusiasm.
He expressed his firm belief that the huge impact of the Web site will continue to grow, as there are numerous ways of improving their activity on a global level and also on their number one market, Asia. He explained that all the needed ingredients for their success are there, with the needed funds coming in, the perfect momentum and the proper engineering back-up to run everything smoothly.
“With more than 75 million users, it is clear that Friendster has already made a dramatic impact. I look forward to growing our business further as we continue our global growth and strong focus on Asia,” Kimber said.
Most recently, Kimber was the regional managing director for South Asia at Google, where he headed business operations and strategic partnerships across the region. He helped increase Google’s revenue in the Asia-Pacific region, opening offices in Singapore and Auckland, and rapidly growing Google’s Australian and Korean businesses.
“Social networking is still in its emerging phase, and I’m guessing it will become as widespread as email,” Kimber said in an interview.
“Social networking is going mobile and Asia plays into that because often the first experience of the internet there is through mobiles. Besides, there is rather an increasing sophistication in marketing. It is the ultimate viral marketing and, when done well, consumers will spread the advertising for you.”
Social networking sites are used by only 20 per cent of internet users, according to Kimber. Developing the service for mobiles has already expanded the user base, given one billion pages were viewed in the month after Friendster launched its mobile version, he said.
Kimber emphasized in an interview on Tuesday that he had not implied anything political. “It is more about the fact that the Internet allows…people to connect with people that they have not been able to connect with,” he explained. “I really do think social networking has a very important role to play alongside the access to information.”
Friendster has the funds to back up Kimber. The company recently raised $20 million in financing led by new investor IDG Ventures. Joining Friendster’s board from IDG is Butch Reddy, a general partner.
“With the addition of Richard, Butch and the new funding, Friendster will continue to expand its worldwide footprint and take advantage of its leadership position in Asia-Pacific,” said Russ Siegelman, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, an investor in Friendster, and chairman of the board for Friendster.
Friendster plans to use the new funds to focus on user growth, user engagement, and monetization through new features, new offerings, localization and marketing, Siegelman said.
Kimber takes over from Kent Lindstrom, who will remain on Friendster’s payroll after serving as CEO since early 2006. Founder Jonathan Abrams left amid the site’s U.S. decline, and he now runs an invitation start-up called Socializr.
“Kimbler said he grabbed the opportunity to lead Friendster.”
“The opportunity to be global CEO of a company does not come up every day,” Kimber said.
He will be devoting most of his time between the Philippines, Singapore and other Asian centers, as San Francisco-based Friendster focuses on expanding its business there.
Well, that is not a bad plan, either, as there is abundance of money in Asia and MySpace and Facebook have yet to establish significant footholds.