Where did FriendsReunited go wrong?

BomoLadBomoLad Posts: 17,821
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It used to be so popular didn't it?

Just got an email from them, as I do occasionally, reminding me of whats happened in my 'group' - whatever that is. I don't think I've logged-in since 2009.

But why did things like FB and later twitter take off but FR - fail? They were popular before either of the other two.

Was it that in order to use the service to any useful degree, you had to pay for it? Did they miss the boat there by not understanding that the way to ensure its popularity was to go against every traditionally minded commerce instinct and give the content away for free?
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  • QTC13QTC13 Posts: 3,566
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    BomoLad wrote: »
    It used to be so popular didn't it?

    Just got an email from them, as I do occasionally, reminding me of whats happened in my 'group' - whatever that is. I don't think I've logged-in since 2009.

    But why did things like FB and later twitter take off but FR - fail? They were popular before either of the other two.

    Was it that in order to use the service to any useful degree, you had to pay for it? Did they miss the boat there by not understanding that the way to ensure its popularity was to go against every traditionally minded commerce instinct and give the content away for free?


    The arrival of Facebook (free) was more or less the end of FR.

    I certainly wouldn't (and never did) pay to get in touch with someone via a website. I know they are people you once knew, but the way I look at it is, if you were that close a friend, you wouldn't have lost contact in the first place.

    Always amazes me on Facebook - the toe rags you never said 2 words to at school are quick to add you and still never speak... I don't think so!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 36,630
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    Where did it go wrong?. When they introduced the £5 fee to email your contacts/friends. It was all downhill from there, especially when what we now know as social networking started to arrive. There were a few, but the first really big social networking site was MySpace, quickly followed by Bebo in the UK and of course, the all conquering Facebook.

    MySpace went downhill when they started allowing users to massively customise their profiles, with all sorts of colours, fonts, logos, music playing as soon as you loaded a page that you could not turn off and all the other annoyances. It could often take several minutes for just one page to load. It became a real pain to use.

    I only joined Bebo because some of my family were on it, and I was sent an invitation. But that too started down the MySpace route and became extremely annoying and slow to use. Plus of course, it was really only popular in the UK.

    Facebook however, stuck to a simple, clean interface with minimal colours and fonts. Even on a slow connection it was fast to use, and as it became massively popular in the US with everyone abandoning MySpace, we quickly followed suit with everyone here abandoning Bebo. Even today, although you can play all the games, post photos and videos and it has been through several changes, it is still fairly clean and quick to load on a slow connection even though our connections are faster, if you discount the adds. It's also still free (if you avoid Zynga's paid for games content). If FB went behind a paywall it would die a death even quicker than the others did, and FB know this.
  • artnadaartnada Posts: 10,113
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    If FB went behind a paywall it would die a death even quicker than the others did, and FB know this.
    Shame some of its users don't know this when they re-post the old "FACEBOOK JUST ANNOUNCED THERE [sic] GOING TO CHARGE £10 TO KEEP YOUR ACCOUNT REPOST THIS IN THE NEXT 5 MINUTES AND YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND YOUR [sic] BE OK"...crap all over their walls.

    So annoying and so thick they must be to follow like sheep.:rolleyes:
  • kizziekizzie Posts: 5,756
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    It had its time and then something more popular came along, its still useful in someways even old school reunion pages in FB still use it to find people they cant on FB.

    It made the owners multi millionaires I'm sure
  • ĐironaĐirona Posts: 15,881
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    never used it

    already in touch with the ones i liked

    mind you facebook was more useful in getting me to pick up with some friends i'd lost contact with....but only wanted a distant sterile relationship with online
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 11,934
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    kizzie wrote: »
    It had its time and then something more popular came along, its still useful in someways even old school reunion pages in FB still use it to find people they cant on FB.

    It made the owners multi millionaires I'm sure

    I bet it made ITV shareholders cry when their idiotic management bought it. There was so much on the market at the time. it was like they were moving into the area and looking at all the houses, and then decided to buy one that was on fire.
  • Babe RainbowBabe Rainbow Posts: 34,349
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    Đirona wrote: »
    never used it

    already in touch with the ones i liked

    mind you facebook was more useful in getting me to pick up with some friends i'd lost contact with....but only wanted a distant sterile relationship with online

    That's one of the things I like about FB. Some people slag off FB and say " why don't you just TALK to the folks you like " but I have some friends on mine that I don't WANT to talk to on the phone. I just like to see that they are ok and still alive and sometimes they post great pictures and stories and it is just the perfect amount of contact.
  • ĐironaĐirona Posts: 15,881
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    That's one of the things I like about FB. Some people slag off FB and say " why don't you just TALK to the folks you like " but I have some friends on mine that I don't WANT to talk to on the phone. I just like to see that they are ok and still alive and sometimes they post great pictures and stories and it is just the perfect amount of contact.

    lol yes and then there's some you wish were facebook friends not real life ones:cool:
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 5,304
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    MySpace went downhill when they started allowing users to massively customise their profiles, with all sorts of colours, fonts, logos, music playing as soon as you loaded a page that you could not turn off and all the other annoyances. It could often take several minutes for just one page to load. It became a real pain to use.
    I'm wondering in what way MySpace was different from Geocities and those sites that used to host amateur/vanity webpages, aside from customisability and the way the script was designed to update the homepage.
  • talentedmonkeytalentedmonkey Posts: 2,639
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    Friends Reunited is more of a specialist service primarily just a glorified database designed for people to contact old school mates, and now members of other clubs and organiztions for a fee, where as facebook is just a pure social network and more flexiable with plenty more features and third party contributions, instant messaging being top of the list. There is enough to keep anyone wanting to use facebook happy which is essential as the worlds popoulation has a diverse range of tastes and requirements. Combine that with any group of people being able to create thier own page and publish news and events and you have an appealing service.Facebook simply got the formula right.
  • OrangecrabOrangecrab Posts: 1,311
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    Friends Reunited has been free to use for some time. It did charge £5 at one time and increased that to £7.50 at one stage, which meant of course that users had to have a credit/debit card. I am in FR but haven't had any messages for ages (and I'm not sure if I want to hear from some people).
  • PictoPicto Posts: 24,270
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    Đirona wrote: »
    lol yes and then there's some you wish were facebook friends not real life ones:cool:

    Or even worse, DS friends. :)
  • valkayvalkay Posts: 15,726
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    kizzie wrote: »

    It made the owners multi millionaires I'm sure


    It did when they sold it, just before it went downhill.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 14,920
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    BomoLad wrote: »
    Where did FriendsReunited go wrong?

    Here:
    BomoLad wrote: »
    Just got an email from them, as I do occasionally, reminding me of whats happened in my 'group' - whatever that is. I don't think I've logged-in since 2009.

    Numerous emails claiming there'd been an update, when there hadn't. Numerous attempts to unsubscribe from this spam ignored by FR. Asked them to stop otherwise I'd delete my account. They carried on. I deleted my account.
  • Gordie10Gordie10 Posts: 2,497
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    Orangecrab wrote: »
    Friends Reunited has been free to use for some time. It did charge £5 at one time and increased that to £7.50 at one stage, which meant of course that users had to have a credit/debit card.

    You can bet that, if it wasn't for Facebook and the like, they'd still be charging £5/£7.50/more now.
  • chebbychebby Posts: 7,841
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    I reunited me , with all the people I didn't want to hear from again.
  • gulliverfoylegulliverfoyle Posts: 6,318
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    as with all things in the computer age something new will always come along

    Facebook took over from myspace which took over from friends reunited

    and somewhere some 17 yr old geek is writing something new which will take over

    and be the fashionable site to be on
  • batdude_uk1batdude_uk1 Posts: 78,722
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    as with all things in the computer age something new will always come along

    Facebook took over from myspace which took over from friends reunited

    and somewhere some 17 yr old geek is writing something new which will take over

    and be the fashionable site to be on

    Some might say,Twitter has overtakn Facebook now, I certainly use twitter far more than Facebook.
  • Dangerous.DaveDangerous.Dave Posts: 1,940
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    I remember reading about a couple who had made FR, they were just an ordinary couple who had an idea. They sold it to ITV for an absolute fortune at exactly the right time. Well done to them.

    I don't know who owns twitter but if I were them i'd be getting a bit nervous now in anticipation for the next fad to come along. I'd flog it now to some mug for millions before it becomes obsolete like FR. Wikipedia says this about twitter:

    The projections for the end of 2013 were $1.54 billion in revenue, $111 million in net earnings, and 1 billion users.

    2013? Nah.
  • swingalegswingaleg Posts: 102,976
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    I like friends reunited and look in every few months to check it out

    I've only had one contact via it, a childhood friend of 45 years ago...............swapped a few e-mails with some reminiscances

    I like looking at the names from school and the area i lived in and checking any profiles and piccies............I was really excited when an old girlfriend appeared on it who i went out with when i was about 15/16...........I'd have loved to have seen a photo but there wasn't one..........:mad:

    Can blame her though 'cos i never uploaded a photo or put any info in

    Perhaps i find it interesting because these are people i haven't seen for 40 years and more...........some of whom i'd forgotten until seeing a name. Maybe if I'd only left school 5 years ago it wouldn't be the same because those people would be fresh in your mind ?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 5,485
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    Who's idea was it to do the current re-design? The site is literally unusable! It must be the greatest example of a dotcom boom website being bought for millions and then utterly effed up!
  • ChickenWingsChickenWings Posts: 2,057
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    Probably the same way Facebook often goes wrong... reuniting you with people you didn't want to be reunited with in the first place.

    Some people are best left as a bitter memory of yesteryear.
  • impartialobservimpartialobserv Posts: 1,324
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    I joined Friends Reunited at one point, but didn't really like it. Facebook on the other hand has definitely served a purpose for me - I grew up in three different countries, went to five different schools and have been on the move ever since. It's lovely to be able to reconnect with people I've lost touch with over the years. I totally disagree with those who say "If they were real friends, you'd never have lost touch." This just isn't true - it's so easy to lose contact with people when you move away, change jobs, get married, have children etc. It doesn't mean you forget your old friends.
  • Raquelos.Raquelos. Posts: 7,734
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    I think it just brought home the fact that for the most part there was a reason that you had lost touch with these people in the first place tbh.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,182
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    Nostalgia coupled with curiosity of how your peers you've lost touch with turned out. You soon realize that none of them were of any importance to you or your life to begin with and never find an excuse to log on again. At least that was my experience of it.

    Oh yeah, plus they started moving the goal posts of who you could and could not send messages to.
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