Jonathan Abrams is founder of Friendster, the fast-growing social networking Web site.
Tell me about Friendster – age, metrics, growth?
Our beta has been up since March 2003. We have over 1.5 million users, and have experienced exponential growth.
Why do you think Friendster has succeeded when other relatively similar initiatives haven’t?
I’m not really familiar with anything that has been very similar to Friendster in execution. We’ve created a service that is fun, simple, and appealing to a mass-market audience.
How do you make money?
We will require small monthly subscriptions for some features, while keeping basic membership free. Specifically, it will be free to sign up, post your profile & photo, search & browser other people’s profiles, photos, friends, testimonials and free to communicate with your friends via Friendster, but if you want to contact someone you don’t know when we move out of beta that will require a small monthly subscription, less than one third of Match.com’s subscription fee.
Friendster is effective if you attract your friends to the Network, but not if they go elsewhere. In that sense it’s a bit like IM. What are you views on interoperability of social network services like Friendster?
I’m not aware of any other social network that has significant size, and interoperability is not something that our users have requested. It’s only come up from proponents of open-source standards like FOAF, which do not seem to address consumer needs.
Which sites or services inspire you?
Friendster was inspired by “real-life” behavior, not a web site, but I’m a big fan of other web sites like Craigslist, HotOrNot.com, and Ryze.
What will social networks look like – or let’s say be capable of – in three years?
I’m really not sure.
