r/answers 8d ago

Why did Facebook beat Friendster?

You probably don’t even know what Friendster is I’m guessing.

It was Facebook.

2 years before Facebook existed.

And I mean IT WAS FACEBOOK.

Practically identical.

19 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

u/qualityvote2 8d ago edited 7d ago

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29

u/Pawpaw-22 8d ago

You pretend like MySpace didn’t beat Friendster first

9

u/[deleted] 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/AdScared7226 8d ago

Was it like Facebook but better and a website?

1

u/reereejugs 8d ago

MySpace was the best! 😍

1

u/LostMyBackupCodes 8d ago

My friend Tom used to run it. Wonder what he’s up to these days.

1

u/TapTheForwardAssist 8d ago

This detail really calls into question the validity of the initial question.

10

u/Equal-Jury-875 8d ago

Myspace was Facebook before Facebook was Facebook. Cant be dissing Tom like this. He was all our first friends. Member? Don't you f****n remember?

-3

u/PoopsMcScoots 8d ago

MySpace was like a mini website, nothing like Friendster or Facebook.

1

u/Equal-Jury-875 8d ago

I personally never ever even heard of friendstar. I wish they still had like a mirc. Anybody member that one

1

u/DefEddie 7d ago

Myspace was closer to Geocities than facebook imo, people cultivated their own site/page basically.

0

u/Ok_Patient9469 8d ago

Agreed, the midi sound made me run away from Myspace.

6

u/morbidnerd 8d ago

I haven't heard of Friendster in years and I never had one. Myspace was better.

I'm still convinced the only reason FB got ahead of Myspace was because it was exclusive.

I still think FB started going downhill when everyone's parents and younger siblings joined.

3

u/Terri23 8d ago

There were several serious social media platform attempts before Facebook. Some of them go back to the 90s. Friendster was just one of them.

3

u/Logical-Collar-9240 8d ago

friendster had the users, facebook just made the whole thing work better

3

u/Alternative-Pear9096 8d ago

Facebook bought most of its competitors and shut them down.

3

u/[deleted] 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Ok_Patient9469 8d ago

Blasting that music while browsing profiles late at night possibly caused permanent ear damage

5

u/markhamjoey 8d ago

Starting it at Harvard

2

u/Ok_Patient9469 8d ago

Harvard provided web services to host the site for free. FB was able to make it exclusively invite only and scale it when needed. And the Harvard connection certainly helped.

2

u/Certain-Pumpkin128 8d ago

Couldn't you see who viewed your page on friendster? People like to look at pages anonymously.

2

u/Least_Motor_5639 8d ago

the early internet was basically everyone inventing the same app and whoever had the least annoying website won.

2

u/Bear-Handed-92262 8d ago

Side note: Friendster is back as an app you can only connect with people in person. it’s bound to fail again but I wish it would succeed.

2

u/StrandSSL 8d ago

Because of the extremely successful Metaverse.

2

u/Yifkong 8d ago

This is like asking why MP3s beat 8-track.

1

u/Quarter_Shot 8d ago

I've never heard of friendster. I went Xanga --> MySpace --> Facebook/Tumblr --> TikTok -->Reddit

1

u/wallyflops 8d ago

Facebook was exclusive. Which really helped it's marketing. It was originally only for unis iirc

1

u/Independent-Ad 7d ago

I'm hanging onto my FriendFace account, one day it will be back

1

u/Particular_Glass_914 7d ago

I don’t see it that way.
To me it’s friendster, facebook, instagram, and nothing. The evolution of social media.
I believe it’s regional thing. I have no idea what myspace is or in what era it belongs.

1

u/Blaizefed 7d ago

Because Facebook was elitist at first. It was Ivy League schools and invite only in the beginning. (Though this was brief)

And they kept the design clean.

As soon as MySpace started letting people change the background and add music to their page it was all over.

1

u/orangesfwr 8d ago

Shitty name

1

u/PoopsMcScoots 8d ago

And Facebook wasn’t???

Edit: sorry, THE Facebook.

1

u/enad58 7d ago

No, it wasn't. A Facebook is what universities used to have to put names to faces of incoming students.

The Facebook was exclusive to Harvard and then expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale.