SearchEngineUpdate with Vanessa Zamora - 08-05-2008 Part II
Abstract: 1. Friendster Puts Focus On Asia, With Funding and Executive Backing, 2. Yahoo, Google, Microsoft & Others Create Code Of Conduct For China
Vanessa Zamora
Video Content Producer, SearchEngineWorld
10:03 pm on Aug. 5, 2008 (utc 0)
Transcript
Tuesday August 5, 2008
Friendster Puts Focus On Asia, With Funding and Executive Backing
Social networking website Friendster is gearing up to expand on its dominance in the Asia Pacific region with a secured $20 million in venture funding led by IDG Ventures and a new CEO. Richard Kimber, who comes from Google where he served as the regional managing director in South Asia will bring his experience to Friendster as it focuses in on Asia, where it currently holds the number one position in Singapore and for Asia overall, according to ComScore. Friendster will use the additional $20 million specifically for new features, new offerings, localization and marketing. Friendster, which claims it has more than 75 million members to date, has been translating the site into different Asian languages. The pioneer social networking website is credited for helping the concept of social networking gain broad acceptance in the United States before its near demise amid technical and management problems.
Yahoo, Google, Microsoft & Others Create Code Of Conduct For China
As the 2008 Olympics in China draws near, Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft along with other Internet companies and human rights groups have developed a voluntary code of conduct for activities in China and other restrictive countries. The move is in attempt to appease concerned senators over past miss-steps, one that involved Yahoo and resulted in a journalist being sentenced to prison for 10 years and another move taken by Google with the release of a censored localized Chinese search engine. The code, which the Senators had hoped would be completed by the start of the Olympic games this Friday, will instead be completed later this year and will spell out "principles of freedom of expression and privacy" in countries where governments seek users' private information or block access to certain websites.
10:03 pm on Aug. 5, 2008 (utc 0)