Is Friendster a social network no one talk about anymore? It seems true in the U.S.; In the comScore Media Metrix press release, Friendster not even listed in the Top 10 most visitors social network sites, but it was not in Asia. It gained huge popularity in Asia South.

According to the New York Times (registration required), three quarters of Friendster’s users live outside the United States, mainly in the Philippines, Malaysia and other, smaller southeast Asian countries. Another source Hitwise also stated that Friendster ranked at the top position for social networking sites in Singapore, with 56.3% market share for the week ending July 15, 2006.

Why Friendster means so special to the Asian? I believed the main reason is due to the peer pressure. One probably would not join a new social networking site if he/she never even heard of it. If your friends was there, you were allured to it definitely. It really didn’t take much persuading in the process. This works for Asian especially Asian view trust as an important element in building a long-lasting friendship. Take a look at the picture above, you will see there are similar characteristics among groups of people available in Friendster. You probably can call it cultural or localization factors. The same holds true for a guy if he wanted to look for good-looking girls, he probably tried to locate her somewhere in his comfort-zone, i.e. near his home address. Moreover, my opinion is Asian seemed to be quite loyal to the things or sites they get used to, thus Friendster gained dominant in Asia South easily. For this reason, I know it’s a bit harsh to say Friendster is an Asian social networking site. But sooner or later, it would going to happen in that way.

The way I see it, it’s a huge opportunity for Friendster to further establish itself in Asia. If Friendster could capitalize its first-mover advantage in Asia South, Friendster still get the chance to become a multibillion-dollar company.