WHY is Friendster so popular in the Philippines?
Once upon a time, Friendster was the social networking site. It was huge in the US and other countries, but since then it has seen a pretender to the throne, MySpace, become the new king of social networking.
In the Philippines, however, Friendster is still hands-down the most popular social networking site, notwithstanding the presence of homegrown alternatives such as GrooveNet. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Filipinos are practically single-handedly keeping Friendster alive. Heck, according to Alexa, Friendster is the second most popular site for Philippine Internet users, next only to Yahoo!
Which makes you wonder: Why is Friendster so popular among us Filipinos? Is it the first-mover advantage? After all, having given Friendster our personal information and built a network of friends there, it’s kind of a drag to have to start all over again in a new social networking site. Then again, that didn’t stop people in other countries from leaving Friendster behind and migrating to MySpace and other competitors.
Is it a cultural quirk? Like when a generation of Filipinos embraced Voltes V with a fervor that would surprise even the people in the land of its birth, Japan, as well as viewers in other countries.
Maybe someone could explain the reason for this phenomenon? One thing’s for sure, thouh: Friendster has become an indispensable part of the online life of many Filipinos. If you or your friends have a great pic, you’ll often hear someone describe it as “pang-Friendster.” Phone pals, or, heaven forbid, pen pals? Nope, nowadays it’s “ka-Friendster.” Sure, some people — hell, most of the world — would say Friendster is baduy, jologs or yesterday’s news, but Filipinos love it anyway.
What’s your Friendster story? Why do you like Friendster? What’s your unforgettable Friendster experience? Share your tales, and maybe we can better understand what makes Friendster the Filipino friend.
May 25th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Walang gumagamit ng friendster dito sa US, baduy kasi. Myspace ang ginagamit dito. Ewan ko nga eh, kung bakit sikat na sikat ang friendster dyan sa Pinas. Almost all celebrities have their own myspace, even American Idol has one.
May 25th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Why Pinoy loves Friendster (or Voltes V for that matter)? It’s simple, Pinoys are branded minded peeps, especially if that brand is what we call “subok na sa panahon”… We Pinoys would “usually” stick to things that we find most comfortable dealing with, the comfort zone kung baga… thus we coin sometimes things as generic like colgate when we mean toothpaste… gasul when we mean LPG… chicken joy when we actually mean fried chicken etc… the liost can go on forever…
Thus this mean Pinoys are loyal people? Could be, but then this is another complex matter to discuss…
Though I have to admit, I do have a Friendster account (and Multiple as well). My younger sister set it up for me because at that time I was the only one in our family who didn’t have one. I don’t log-in religiously, just check and see who’s new once in a while and who among my old mates have re-discovered my existence.
Sadly, since I am a computer “clean” freak, I discovered that Friendster installs a tracking cookie in my cache. Well according to my Ad-Aware SE scanner… the reason why I’m not a regular… nevertheless this wouldn’t mean that it’s not a good web-app and a place to hang out with old flames and mates…
BTW, I’m blogging from the UK…
May 25th, 2007 at 7:09 am
I have been away from the Philippines for some time. When I left P.I, I never heard of Friendster. I was surprised when I finally joined that some of my HS classmates, neighbors, cyberfriends, people I know from the next office where I used to work in P.I. were already members and my ex even
Isn’t that a great thing to connect? plus you get to post pics, music and blog. One thing I noticed, friendster has more wholesome members than myspace whose members mostly wants to show off their barely covered bodies.
May 25th, 2007 at 6:07 am
ang nagpapabuhay ngayon sa friendster eh yung mga class c at d, yung usually tinatawag na “jologs” crowd na ngayon lang nagkakaron ng access sa internet.
marami rin kase ang ayaw mag myspace especially kung wala sa metro manila dahil kung wala kang high speed connection, aabutin ka ng siyam-siyam sa pagload ng pages sa myspace dahil sa mga embeded na videos at music. yung groovenet naman, mukhang kasangkapan lang yun nung may-ari ng web site para mangolekta ng chicks na pinay hehehe.
May 24th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
* i only had my friendster account since 2005 and its surprising that most of my friends already had theirs like years before that.
* i welcome the goosebumps and the smile it leaves my face everytime i see friends, classmates and exes from way back
* thank god there’s friendster!