As Facebook continues to go from strength-to-strength, it is easy to forget just a few years ago, that Facebook wasn’t the biggest social network in the world, a site named “Bebo” was. But fast-forward to the present day and Facebook is in control, while Bebo have suffered a tremendous fall from grace. But after their market position just a few years ago, many would question how such a fall can take place.
Bebo was founded in 2005 by husband-and-wife team Michel and Xochi Birch. Like Facebook, it was a social networking site, offering users the chance to connect with one another, view content and generally interact. At the height of its popularity, with almost 11m users, Bebo overtook Myspace to become the most-used social networking website in the United Kingdom. Content included blogs, photographs, videos and questionnaires. Many elements were more customisable than Facebook.
Things were going well. The popularity of Bebo led to conglomerate AOL purchasing the company for a mammoth $850m in 2008. On paper, AOL now had a behemoth of social media that could help their brand secure further profit. However the deal would turn out to be a nightmare, with the-then CEO of AOL Randy Falco losing his job in the aftermath. With rival sites Facebook and Twitter prospering, it led to the numbers dwindling. What was once a hugely-popular website had become a rarely-used network. It simply couldn’t keep up with the advances of other social media sites. Facebook particularly have been proven to be a highly-innovative company, which didn’t help Bebo.
The site would evolve and make changes, staying online for a few years to follow. After a three-day outage in 2012, it appeared Bebo was gone. The hashtag ‘Bebo memories’ trended on Twitter – showing it is a website with considerable nostalgia to it for many. While the site would return, in 2013 Bebo filed for bankruptcy. This led to the original founders purchasing the site for $1m, just $849m less than they sold it for – not bad business!
While Facebook is prospering – it shouldn’t be forgotten that things can change in the blink of an eye. In 2008, AOL would have never imagined what a horror would become of the brand. Bebo has transformed and is still trying to battle back – but it is highly unlikely it will ever be able to restore itself to its old glory. What was once an enormously popular social network has suffered a dramatic fall from grace. It’s a shame what happened to the website, but it is more proof that nothing is forever.
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Millicent Faith 