Step 2 of 4 · 2003–07

Growth reduced the usefulness of the network it created

Both Abrams and the scholarly history describe performance problems during rapid growth. Abrams later criticized attention to partnerships while the core service remained slow and unreliable. The researchers describe frustration among people who had begun using Friendster in place of email. FR1 FR2 FR5

Reliability had a social consequence. A profile network is valuable when people can reach and interact with the people they want. Repeated friction can reduce both an individual’s use and the reasons friends have to return. This connects the engineering problem to the customer job without assuming that technical repair alone would have settled every other conflict.

Rivals A functioning alternative used by the same friends can become preferable even if it starts with a smaller total network.

Step 3 of 4 · 2003–07

The company restricted uses that a rival welcomed

Members stretched the four-degree browsing rule by adding connections and creating fictional or institutional profiles. Friendster removed such profiles. Boyd and Ellison describe a loss of trust among some early users and contrast this with MySpace’s welcome for bands and greater freedom to personalize pages. FR5

This is a product-policy comparison, not a generic complaint about management. The company’s model of a legitimate profile excluded activities that helped some people discover others, express affiliation or have fun. MySpace could recruit those groups by permitting the activity. A larger network did not compensate every user for being told that their preferred use was invalid.

Rivals Compare how Friendster and MySpace treated the same bands and creative profile practices during the migration period.

Trade-offs & activity fit

Step 4 of 4 · 2005–10

US decline and an Asian business followed different paths

The same scholarly account that describes US departures records growth in several Southeast Asian countries. Abrams emphasized continued Asian usage in his Stanford talk. A later MOL filing places the completed acquisition in January 2010, after the 2009 announcement. FR2 FR5 FR8

The regional difference is a useful check on a universal-collapse story. Networks formed in different groups and places could retain value after US early adopters moved. The acquisition is evidence of a surviving business at this endpoint, although it does not establish strong returns or global leadership. Later studies of Friendster’s decline address a subsequent period and cannot by themselves explain the earlier US loss. FR7

Rivals Compare the social groups and local alternatives within a region before treating worldwide registrations as one competitive market.