AOL to Decide Whether to Sell or Shut Down Social Network Bebo
Thousands of younger generation users of social networking site Bebo are expected to switch platform following the announcement from AOL that it will be selling or shutting down the website because of dismal performance.
AOL made the announcement on Monday, saying that the business opportunity for the website has declined drastically in the last couple of years.
“Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space,” AOL said in a statement.
It will be recalled that AOL paid over 557 million pounds for Bebo, which then had more than 40 million unique users all over the world. The social networking site was very promising back then, forming a younger generation audience compared to its larger rival Facebook and MySpace.
To date, Bebo has only 12.8 million users left worldwide.
With the announcement of the sale, many experts believe that AOL would only be able to fetch a fraction of the price it has paid for the said website.
Experts also believe that the social website is most likely to be closed down rather than being bought by anyone.
“AOL will have a hard time finding a buyer for Bebo, especially with the disappointing turn out of its users for the past years,” a technology expert said.
Bebo is a social networking website that allows its users to create profiles where they can share videos, photos, and messages.
The social networking website also gained momentum in Europe, particularly in the UK, than in the United States.
Based on records, it is still the fourth most popular social networking site in the UK next to Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter.
Meanwhile, Bebo’s following in the US continued to drop as survey companies reported that there are only 5.1 million users as of February 2010, a relatively low turn out compared to more than 209.7 million Facebook users.
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