Friendster was founded by Jonathan Abrams, a computer programmer from Canada. Friendster got its name from "friend" and "Napster", a P2P file sharing service controversial at the time. The company was founded in Mountain View, California.
In only a few months after its launch, the privately owned Friendster had more than 3 million users. The social network's rapid success inspired many others to follow, fueling the rise of social networks in general. Being a phenomenon, Friendster was also one of the firsts to use the "Circle of Friends", a technique that later became common on social media networks.
Google wanted to buy Friendster for $30 million. Friendster in turning down the offer was later considered as one of the biggest blunders of Silicon Valley.
Friendster was considered the father, and the top social network until 2004, when it was overtaken by MySpace.
Despite its slowing performance in later years, Friendster continued to grow in Asia. At its peak, the social media was ranked #40 most visited website in the world with more than 115 million users.
On December 9th, 2009, Friendster was acquired for $26.4 million by MOL Global, one of Asia's largest internet companies. Under a new flag, Friendster repositioned itself from social media to become a gaming site. Its focus was "entertainment and fun." This strategy made it avoid direct rivalry to Facebook, and instead complemented it.
But the strategy didn't last long. In June 2015, Friendster's services were shut down and the reign of the oldest social media network ended.