Some Fun Facts About Friendster, Circa 2009

For Slate, David Roth investigates Friendster circa 2009, as passe in America as Monica Denise Arnold. A useful article, especially if one were inclined to update Friendster's entry in Wikipedia with referenced sources. Surprising facts emerge:

• Friendster still attracts investors, receiving a $20 million cash infusion last August. 
  
  
• Friendster is still buggy, spam-infested and moribund in the United States (except for "Asian-Americans in California or gay men, for whom the site has become a popular dating network.") 
  
  
• Friendster is estimated to be as popular in Asia as Facebook and MySpace combined. Of 30 million unique visitors in December 2008, 28 million came from Asia. 
  
  
• Friendster is expanding operations in Singapore and the Philippines. In the Pinas, "90 percent of the Internet-enabled population has a Friendster page." 
  
  
• "More than 100,000 users still join Friendster daily..." I was at first shocked by the figure before I realized that this totalled only to around 36.5 million new users in a year. 
  
  
• Choice quote: "If you're in the Philippines and doing your social networking on Facebook, you're probably awfully lonesome." That's news to me. 
  

I myself logged on yesterday to my Friendster account for the first time in months. Thought about deleting my account, but figured why bother with blissful stasis. Good to learn from Slate that Filipinos are actively working to stimulate one sector of the American economy.