So farewell Bebo?

I was not surprised to read that social networking site Bebo may either be sold or closed down by its owner America Online (AOL), having lost almost three quarters of its users.

As someone who uses a multitude of social networks on a daily basis, I've tried using Bebo on occasion and haven't been impressed.

The site made me feel like someone had scattered a basketful of purposely misspelt words onto their profile, many of which came complete with a collection of moronic videos showing such jolly fun as two teenagers pouring beer all over themselves in their car.

I've clicked on links to Bebo profiles since my short membership of the site, and few of the four dozen or so I have seen have been used since 2008.

Hitwise's rating of Bebo as the fourth most popular social networking site in the UK (after Facebook, YouTube and Twitter) is surprising, especially when you consider how popular Myspace has been in the past.

What does Bebo do that Facebook or Myspace do not? Any new buyer for the site needs to consider how it can offer unique features.

This does not have to mean a totally new direction for the site, but simply a reason to use Bebo over other social networking sites.

Design issues with Bebo:

One mistake Bebo has made is to place some of the most interesting content on a person's profile, messages from other Bebo users, below tedious applications such as "Which Hollywood celebrity are you". This is the downside of having all most of the information on a single page.

Alongside Facebook's way of neatly presenting information, Bebo's current profiles look like a confused mess. Some of the text/background choices are also hard to read.

I think whoever buys Bebo needs to brainstorm what the site's unique selling point could be as well as how information could be better presented.

Other questions include how the new Bebo could make money without charging for people to sign up (why would people pay when they can sign up to Facebook or Myspace for free?) and how a new Bebo could use Twitter compatibility to draw people to the site.

Financial issues with Bebo:

As well as the design issues I have identified, a number of financial issues have been suggested. David Prosser claims: "One cannot think of a single example where a young business in a new market has prospered after being bought up by a large old-world parent company. These acquisitions never work." while lack of funding by AOL is also cited by a source for the Guardian's coverage of Bebo.

If no buyer can be found for Bebo, or if AOL decides simply to close Bebo anyway, the site will close and forty people will be unemployed. According to Reuters' MediaFile, both selling Bebo and simply closing the social networking site have financial benefits for AOL. In fact, closing Bebo may have the best financial benefit for AOL, even if it annoys some current or potential AOL customers.

I suggest that all Bebo users plan for the site closing.

Join Facebook or Myspace and look for your Bebo friends there. You might be surprised how many you find. Make sure that you copy any interesting comments into a text document and that you have copies of any photos you have uploaded to Bebo.

No social networking site is perfect, but I feel that Facebook suits my needs. We will see if Bebo 2.0 (if such a thing happens) could compete with Facebook.

Incidentally, Bebo stands for "Blog early, blog often".