Bebo faces closure
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Bebo, the social networking site, may be shut down by owner AOL.
Sofia’s Diary
AOL is considering closing or selling the site which it bought for $1bn (£550 million) in 2008 as it evaluates its brands against a strategy set in May last year.
The internet company says Bebo has been in decline and that it would require “significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social network space”.
It said in a statement: “AOL is not in a position at this time to further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking.”
The decision on the future of Bebo will be made by May 2010.
Bebo was a pioneer in broadcasting online TV series, such as Sophia’s Diary, and allowed companies to place their brands in content via a multi-media narratives that users interacted with through the site.
Last week, former Bebo CEO Joanna Shields joined rival social networking site Facebook as VP of sales and business development, EMEA, after leaving Bebo last spring.
Readers' comments (4)
Anonymous | Wed, 7 Apr 2010 12:19 pm
I am not surprised by this decision by AOL to consider closing Bebo social networking site.
AOL was a global brand and poineer in the internet gateway to social networking back in the mid to late 90s.
With new players /competitors in the market - AOL lost its world ranking as No.1. ISP provider in the UK and world-wide.
Yet, again Bebo may have followed the same faith.
There are stronger brands on the market..like Twitter,Facebook and Myspace..Bebo can no longer compete with these leading stronger brands.
Since the 90s Social networking technology has moved on and online social networking platform have merged with innovative communication tools.
The crazy these days for online users, is the need to be able to interact and engage with real time communication accessories tools like widgets, apps,ipps,ipads etc built in functionalities to be found with more interactive sophisticated social networking sites like: Twitter,Facebook and Myspace linked to mobile phone technology .
Todate [Twitter,Facebook and Myspace ] these 3 social networking brands are the key major players - and generate several millions of registered users monthly.. Bebo can to no longer compete with.
Aside from the fact over the past 6 months AOL has gradually been closing some of its business operations acrosse EU and else where world-wide with mass redundancy.
The company is looking to stream line its business operation world-wide and reposition the AOL brand into emerging digital platforms moving into niche markets.
It makes sense to close Bebo if the internal support resource is no longer there to safe guard the future of Bebo - is a business decision to close Bebo.
In marketing - every product or services has a shelf life -and sell by date online and offline.
Bebo + R.I.P.
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Anonymous | Wed, 7 Apr 2010 5:12 pm
I disagree with the comment about, Bebo has a role in the marketplace as a site for tweens & teens - the issue has come from marketeers inability to segment Bebo correctly (and the same for Habbo).
Whilst I do not use Bebo, I understand and appreciate where it belongs in the marketplace - and it will be a shame for it to be closed down.
That said, AOL got fleeced!
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Matt | Thu, 8 Apr 2010 2:53 pm
I agree that there is still an open niche for a social networking site for 16 (probably 14) and below. Considering how Facebook was conceived, as a communication tool for a University campus, I’m surprised there isn’t already a junior version of Facebook used in and for schools. Unless Facebook (do people still use MySpace?) wants to improve security and offer more child friendly content (and parental controls), I can’t see many parents being 100% happy about kids socialising on such sites.
I remember when I was at school, doing a project on ‘Africa’ and writing to kids in an African school to exchange experiences, world views etc. We had to wait “ages” (in kid time) for any response. This was all pre Internet when computers used those huge 5 inch floppy discs.
Cultural diversity is a healthy thing, and practicing your French, Spanish, German or even Chinese with online friends from over sees may actually get us Brits losing our international reputation for being very lazy at learning languages.
There’s lots of educational merit as well as social for kids which I’m not sure is being tapped. It’s got to be a huge market, and once you’re familiar with one platform and happy with it, why change over to another just because you are older?
I’m sure there must be lots of people scratching their heads about how best to engage tweenies etc online. I’m just surprised it hasn’t already happened.
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Anonymous | Mon, 12 Apr 2010 1:30 pm
Hmm, this seems at best to have been rather a foolish purchase. Spending $1bn to find out 2 years later your new toy needs too much investment to make it worthwhile is not that diligent is it? Times change and all that, but perhaps this kind of decision making illustrates why AOL has lost so much ground as a "go to" online brand in recent years
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