MEDIA RELEASE PR36834
Friendster Launches Virtual Gifts and The Friendster Gift Shop
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --
Over 115 Million Friendster Members Can Send and Receive Virtual Gifts,
the First in a Series of Products Utilizing the Friendster Wallet
Friendster, Inc., a top global web site based on traffic, today announced
the launch of virtual gifts and the Friendster Gift Shop, which is the first
in a series of forthcoming products utilizing the new Friendster Wallet,
enabling over 115 million Friendster users to buy and send gifts to one
another. The gift shop will initially launch in Malaysia via a "Gifts" button
in the header navigation bar at the top of each web page on Friendster, and
will be rolled out within weeks throughout Southeast Asia and globally.
The Friendster Gift Shop will support a variety of gifts and will enable
the Friendster community to send gifts to one another, quickly and
conveniently, as part of their Friendster experience. Friendster Gifts will
be used to send personal gestures of kindness, commend others on significant
accomplishments, and recognize friends and family on special days, like
birthdays, and just for fun. A variety of gift themes are supported and more
will be added over time. Currently, users can choose from virtual birthday
gifts, collectible gifts, greeting gifts, premium gifts, romance gifts,
seasonal gifts, thank you gifts and more.
Friendster is launching the gift shop with hundreds of gifts. Initially,
some gifts are free to give using Friendster Chips, Friendster's
non-monetary, promotional currency. In a few weeks, Friendster will add
Friendster Coins, Friendster's monetary currency, where one US dollar equals
1,000 Friendster Coins. Many of the gifts range in price between 200-500
Friendster Coins.
All gifts are accompanied by a note, allowing the sender to add a
personal message to the gift. When gifts are sent, they arrive wrapped for
the recipient, which makes unwrapping the gift more fun and exciting and
reminiscent of the real world experience. Recipients can choose to display
the gifts they have received on their Friendster profile in their Treasure
Chest module, a new, special section of the Friendster profile page for a
user's favorite gifts. Additionally, premium gifts will automatically be
displayed in the Treasure Chest for seven days, for all friends and family to
see.
"The Friendster Gift Shop will give our users a number of great new ways
to celebrate special occasions and accomplishments with friends and family on
Friendster surrounding events at school, work, home-or just to say hello in a
fun, unique way," said Ben Dunn, vice president, Philippines and global head
of brand experience at Friendster. "As public displays of affection are an
important part of the culture in Southeast Asia, Friendster is in the perfect
position to make gift giving even more visible and easier for our millions of
users."
Before Friendster users can send gifts, users must create their Wallet by
logging into Friendster and clicking on the Wallet link in the upper right of
any page. This is a quick, but necessary, step for security purposes so that
each user can select a second password called a Wallet Key to keep their
Wallet secure. Friendster will give each user 1,500 free Chips upon creating
their wallet. These complimentary 1,500 Chips will allow each user to send
gifts to friends and family while learning how easy the Friendster Gift Shop
is to use. After users have spent the free Chips, users can send more gifts
by either earning more Chips through participation in special promotions, or
by buying Coins.
Given the relatively low credit card penetration in most of Southeast
Asia, Friendster enables users to purchase Friendster Coins via several
alternate payment options, especially pre-paid "top-up" cards which can be
purchased at readily-accessible convenience stores such as 7-Eleven
throughout Southeast Asia. Users can buy a physical pre-paid card at
thousands of offline locations with cash, and then enter the unique code from
the card into the Friendster Wallet to receive the money as credit into his
or her account. Friendster will store account balances allowing users to
purchase gifts, and in the near future, to spend on online games and other
offerings. Coming soon, users will also be able to purchase pre-paid cards
for friends and send coins to others as gifts. The Friendster Wallet is
powered via a partnership with MOL AccessPortal Berhad (MOL), a leading
payments provider leveraging a network of over 500,000 physical and virtual
payment channels worldwide.
"Giving gifts on Friendster will be the first time many of our users buy
and give gifts online. We're excited to be part of that experience for so
many as they use our network to reach out to friends and family locally and
globally in a special way," said Dunn.
About Friendster
With more than 115 million members worldwide, Friendster is a leading
global online social network. Friendster is focused on helping people stay in
touch with friends and discover new people and things that are important to
them. Friendster is one of the best sites that allow people to meaningfully
participate with others in exciting and fun ways. Friendster prides itself in
delivering an easy-to-use, friendly and interactive environment where users
m.friendster.com from any Internet-ready mobile device. Friendster has a
growing portfolio of patents granted to the company on social networking,
with more expected over the next several months. Headquartered in Mountain
View, California, Friendster is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers,
Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, IDG Ventures and individual investors. For
SOURCE: Friendster, Inc.
CONTACT: Jeff Roberto of Friendster
+1-650-237-1411
press@friendster.com
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