Friendster closing down?

Friendster says goodbye? | Friendster newest casualty of Facebook?

Friendster old and new logos courtesy of Friendster.com

No, Friendster will not be shutting down yet.

Friendster, the once most popular social networking site in the country, is to undergo a major reformat! Your photos, blogs, testimonials, messages, shoutouts, groups and other data will be greatly affected since they are going to be deleted by May 31st. So back them up now by exporting them using an application provided by Friendster. (Copy and paste this url to know how to export your files: http://friendster.ehclients.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=199)

Friendster will not anymore be a social networking site. After the new platform will be installed, Friendster will become a site that would said to complement Facebook which has appeared to be the number one social networking site, right now. Friendster will now focus on gaming, music, entertainment and online shopping.

On its help page, Friendster has this announcement:

We are introducing a new and improved Friendster in the coming weeks that will be focused on entertainment and fun. There will be new features that will leverage on your online activities and will enable you to connect with friends or engage new friends with similar interests.

For example, if you are playing games or listening to music but none of your friends are, your social experience may be limited. Our improved site is designed to create new profiles that allow you to connect differently with people and do things differently than other networking sites. Basically, the new site will complement your existing online presence in other social networking sites.

Your Friendster account will not be deleted when these new features and changes take place. You may continue to login to Friendster using your existing login details. Your list of friends will be preserved, along with your basic profile information, wallet and games.

Stay tuned for the new Friendster's Beta version!

Your Friendster account will not be deleted. You will still have the same email login and password in the new Friendster. Also, your list of friends will be preserved, along with your basic profile information. However, all the photos, messages, comments, testimonials, shoutouts, blogs, forums and groups that you may have now will no longer be part of your account by May 31, 2011.

We understand that your photos, blogs and other private data are important to you. An application is available in the “Apps” section of the site, until May 31, 2011, to help you download or export them securely to third party sites, such as Flickr or Multiply.

If you do not wish to keep all this history or information, then you do not need to do anything. Whether you use the Exporter or not, your Friendster account will not be deleted. Your list of friends will be preserved, along with your basic profile information. Your wallet and games details will also remain unchanged.

There are 115 million registered Friendster users, however only 40 million have valid email addresses and fewer are active.

Majority of Friendster users come from the Philippines, the United States, Malaysia, Indonesia and Britain.