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.
June 5th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
WHY Filipinos still use Friendster over Myspace?
- Friendster’s main objective is simply for social networking.
- Myspace has a lot of other objectives that contribute to so much noise. Myspace members post lots of their own video, MTV, picture albums, too much multimedia but mostly for making money.
- Friendster layout and interface is easy to use and navigate.
- MySpace pages have too much SPAM and take a longer time to upload.
- Friendster i smore personal while Myspace is too commercial.
Actually I have accounts on both sites but my Friendster is personal, my Myspace is for business.
May 25th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
The main reason is, We invested so much to create our network in friendster for years. We discover our HS friends, relatives, make friends and connections through it, Why would you go to other networking site if you already have your network through friendster? If you will go to other networking site you’re not even sure if your friends are members there. Another possibility is Filipinos goes to things that are “IN”, If they heard from their friends that they use those kind of things, they want to have that also. The other possibility is filipinos are too lazy to transfer all their investment in networking to a new one to start all over again.
May 25th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I think its been a trend that most of us (in the Phil) follows. Unnoticeably it has grow that it becomes the most popular in the country. But Im open in trying new one its just Friendster has most of my friends.
May 25th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Why friendster still huge in RP?? because its famous and well-known site than “MySpace”…try to ask people and conduct a survey, im sure a lot of them didnt even know “MySpace” and other social networking site especially universities in the provinces….
May 25th, 2007 at 8:45 am
What is your basis for stating that “Filipinos are practically single-handedly keeping Friendster alive”?