Social Networking Journal

Bebo: Off To Another Market?

Bebo.com is struggling to regain its popularity with many new features, such as IM integration (users from AOL’s very own AIM can login to Bebo) as well as social aggregation via SocialThing and . It’s obvious that they’ll need to do much more than that to earn AOL back the $850million Bebo was bought for a little more than a year ago. Whatever AOL is up to, it’s certainly going to be interesting, but all signs tell (and told) that it will be another attempt to try merging AOL’s largest user base – the 30 million AIM users who

It looks like Bebo is aiming to attract new users from the oversaturated social networks by becoming sort of an all-in-one page. You can now check your mail, listen to music, watch videos, chat via AOL’s AIM, add widgets and let others see your Twitter/Facebook/MySpace updates – all in your profile. In short – all your internet social life up in one place. But one question remains – why should you use Bebo then? They can get practically the same at AOL, SocialThing, Profilactic, partly Yahoo and many others. But the social network part? It can be had anywhere, namely Facebook, which has already surpassed Bebo in its supposedly largest markets – the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Although it offers some unique features, the rest looks like a swift emulation with no soul, with an exception at Bebo’s music pages which allow you to add the songs to playlists, as well as the service clearly understands its scarce position in the market – if the visitors can’t go to Facebook just because they use Bebo, they won’t go to Bebo as far as they’re concerned. Bebo will continue to get fewer and fewer visitors each month, but some users will stay as a stable membership base, as the site can be valuable to some people. Some people. That clearly isn’t enough for AOL’s money.

Bebo witnessed an astonishing 50% growth rate during March 2009 when AOL launched the aforementioned merging of the accounts, but it just doesn’t stick, as the users from AIM visited Bebo because of the notifications they received, but simply didn’t know what they can do within the site. The site’s targeted to teens and students, but that doesn’t click with the number of visitors that Facebook or MySpace get.

While it’s interesting to see what Bebo will offer in the future, it looks as though they’re facing an uphill battle. AOL can literally see their cash burning when they look at the declining popularity of Bebo. Whatever Bebo will bring to the table, it has to be something really, really big if they still want to remain in the big market. The direction Bebo is going to is not firmly set in terms of conquering the market, and lost souls, as well as lost social networks, seldom find their way back home.