{"id":1913122,"date":"2026-05-01T19:01:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1913122"},"modified":"2026-05-01T19:01:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:01:54","slug":"friendster-is-back-but-looks-very-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1913122","title":{"rendered":"Friendster is back, but looks very different"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Home<\/a>><\/span>Tech<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Friendster has returned! But you can only connect with offline friends.<\/h1>\n
Friendster, the original social network, has returned from the dead.<\/div>\n
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\n \u00a0By\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matt Binder<\/a><\/div>\n

\u00a0on\u00a0

Share on Facebook<\/span><\/a>Share on Twitter<\/span><\/a>Share on Flipboard<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Friendster<\/p>\n
Friendster has been relaunched roughly 24 years after it first debuted as one of the first social networking websites.<\/span>Credit: Friendster.com<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Do you remember Friendster<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The early-2000s social networking platform has now returned roughly 24 years later with a whole new gimmick: Users can only connect with real-life friends.<\/p>\n

The founder of the new Friendster, Mike Carson, is promoting the relaunched social media platform as being free of any ads and algorithms. But, that’s not all that’s missing either.<\/p>\n

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Friend currently exists as an iOS app. And once a user downloads the app and sets up their account, they’ll see completely blank space. Friendster doesn’t show users any posts. In fact, there are no suggestions about who to follow at all.<\/p>\n

The new Friendster is built for users to strictly follow people they know in real-life. And the platform makes sure it’s being used that way too. In order to follow someone on Friendster, the two users need to physically tap each other’s phones while the app is open. This is the only way to connect with someone on the platform.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:<\/span>It’s time for MySpace to make a comeback<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

What happened to Friendster<\/h2>\n

Before even MySpace took off, there was Friendster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Friendster was officially launched in March 2002 by its founder Jonathan Abrams and is largely considered to be the first major online social networking platform. However, shortly after its launch, other social networks like MySpace quickly took off and Friendster was unable to maintain a foothold with American users.<\/p>\n

The platform did find a significant user base in Asia and was eventually sold to a Malaysian company, before Friendster pivoted to become a social gaming website in 2011. Eventually, however, Friendster was completely shut down in 2015.<\/p>\n

Carson, the new owner, said he noticed<\/u><\/a> that the Friendster.com domain was once again resolving to a website filled with pop-up ads in 2023. Carson reached out to the new owner of the domain and found out that they had won Friendster.com at an expired domain auction one year earlier for just $7,456. Carson eventually struck a deal with the domain owner, purchasing Friendster.com for $20,000 in Bitcoin along with another domain Carson owned that generated $9,000 per year.<\/p>\n

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