The once popular social networking site, Bebo, is due to undergo a complete revamp in a bid to attract more users.
Facebook’s ancestor still claims to have over 110 million users with the average age of 17.
Instead of setting itself up to be in direct competition with Facebook, it appears that Bebo will be approaching a niche market, in a similar way as MySpace has with fresh musicians.
The social networking platform was bought by AOL for £515m ($850m) in 2008 and recently sold to a private equity firm, Criterion Critical Partners (CCP) for only £6m ($10m).
CCP is hoping to be able to give Bebo the care and attention the site failed to get from AOL which would raise its popularity.
Bebo’s recent additions are instant messaging, games and a Facebook connect integration.
Akash Garg, chief technology officer and former co-founder of social networking company Hi5, said:
“When AOL bought the company it was unclear to me what their strategy with Bebo was and I don’t think they ever really worked that out or articulated a vision to make it long lasting.
“Bebo didn’t get the attention or the feature sets it needed under AOL and I saw this as an opportunity to develop some new ones and energise and reinvigorate the user base.”
