Facebook vs. Friendster

The battle is still on between the giant social networking websites. MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster are all fighting for the top crown to become the most visited, and most subscribed to, social networking service today. Many have thought that the battle was already won, but recent updates, rebrandings and relaunches, have stirred the competition.

Foremost, it is best to examine the fundamental differences between two of these giants: Facebook and Friendster. Facebook, originally TheFacebook.com, is a newer social networking site compared to Friendster, which was launched in 2004 compared to the latter that was launched somewhere in 2003.

In terms of audience, Facebook became one of the primary websites in the West, because it was originally a social servicing site invented for Harvard, then later for Yale, and many other prestigious campuses. Friendster, on the other hand, has a huge share of subscribers across Asia (about 90% of the total traffic), most especially in the Philippines, where it still retains its top position amidst the heavy competition from Facebook and MySpace.

Nevertheless, Facebook is the most visited networking site, compared to Friendster. With an Alexa rank of 2, compared to Friendster’s 167, Facebook has the most number of unique monthly visitors worldwide.

By incorporating major user friendly applications, such as Farmville, and the unique video and picture tagging technology, Facebook has managed to propel itself even higher in the search engines, and has instantly garnered millions of subscribers. These features made the site more fun, as people can now play various games, such as poker, within their site. You can even customize your own advertisements. Throughout the globe, it has the most number of subscriptions, with more than 350 million members compared to Friendster’s 100 million. This is a whopping amount, considering that the latter doesn’t even reach half of Facebook’s registrants.

Due to all of these developments, Facebook has generally dwarfed Friendster, even if it came out as the newer website. Contrary to many users’ belief that Friendster has already become irrelevant for two to three years now, the site has just made major leaps in acquiring important social networking related patents, that places it at an advantage over its competitors. Friendster developers have also improved the site’s interface to include new features like advertising and community building, that were launched in 2009.

1. Facebook is a newer online social network site compared to Friendster.

2. Facebook has the most number of subscribers as opposed to Friendster.

3. Facebook is ranked 2 by Alexa, while Friendster is ranked at 167.

4. Facebook has the unique tagging system, and user-friendly applications, like Farmville and many others.

5. Friendster primarily dominates areas in Asia.

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