Friendster

Acquired · Oct 27

Meta

Had 3 million users by summer 2003 but sent newcomers to an empty-feeling site, with slow friends-of-friends math. Benchmark's backing later blocked Benchmark from investing in Facebook.

Tips

• Zuckerberg seeded Facebook inside one dense Harvard network before spreading outward▶ 53:2070% of everyone who ever signed up was active that day, and that stayed true for several years as the network grew.