Bebo’s Founder Says He’s Bought It Back For $1M, Plans To ‘Reinvent’ It

http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/01/bebos-founder-michael-birch-says-hes-bought-back-the-social-network-for-1m-plans-to-reinvent-it/

by talhof8 • 13 years ago

30 8 13 years ago

techcrunch.com

drcross• 13 years ago

I would go back to Bebo (from Facebook) in a heartbeat if I could be given any assurance that my social network data was more private and secure and less likely to end up in a data silo in Ohio.

hvs• 13 years ago

More amusing is Crunchbase's description of Bebo right under the article:

"Launched in July 2005, Bebo has steadily risen to become one of the world’s most popular social networking sites. Users can create profiles on the site for free, stay connected with friends, watch videos, and listen to music. In early 2008 Bebo had over 34 million registered users and 7 billion monthly page views. Bebo’s founders have extensive experience in online social networking, having been involved in the founding and building of such companies as Birthday..."

I guess those don't get updated unless good things happen to the company.

leoc• 13 years ago

Fun fact: Bebo seems to have been the leading and best-known social network in Ireland for quite a while, I'm guessing in much the same way that Orkut is big in Brazil. Alas Ireland is not as big as Brazil.

k-mcgrady• 13 years ago

Bebo was huge in Ireland and the UK in around 2005-2007/8. Very few people here seemed to be interested in Myspace and Facebook was still limited to US High Schools. Around 2008 Facebook started gaining traction and Bebo disappeared.

beat• 13 years ago

What a business plan! Create a social startup, sell it for a bazillion dollars, wait til the new owners wreck it, buy it back for a song. Wish I'd thought of it!

Seriously, though, since they have a proven system that was pretty popular, a little tweaking and a good marketing plan (perhaps one that exploits the sell-your-life-to-NSA issues of other networks), and I could see it come roaring back to life.

pawrvx• 13 years ago

Flipping .coms like it's 1999!

aclevername• 13 years ago

Bebo is buying back whatever is left of its userbase? I don't understand why the founder doesn't just stick the $1MM into seeding and promoting his new social project vs. attempting to resuscitate what is there.

taproot• 13 years ago

1M is chump change for a large code base and business infrastructure.

Not even counting the userbase.

There could also be some kind of noncompete this gets around.

Bebo’s Founder Says He’s Bought It Back For $1M, Plans To ‘Reinvent’ It

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