Friendster taps Google for Search & Ads

Reports last Tuesday from Reuters announced a partnership with Friendster & Google in delivering contextual ads and search services:

Friendster Inc. named Google Inc. as its exclusive advertising and Web search provider, part of a plan by the originator of the social network craze to expand globally, the company said on Tuesday.

The plan calls for text and display advertising to run on Friendster members’ personal profile sites, worldwide, and the company will introduce Google Web search across the site in the second quarter of 2007.

No details on the financials of the deal were disclosed by if you remember, Google had the same arrangement with social network giant MySpace a while back. That deal inked $900 million in revenues for MySpace in the next 3 years (ending 2010). Friendster has an estimated 37 million users worldwide and the Philippines is the top user followed by Malaysia, Indonesia and the United States. (On a related note, Google’s Orkut is huge in Brazil.)

This new deal could very well revive the ailing and cash-strapped Friendster to continue to expand, grow it user base and find a more stable and/or profitable revenue stream. I guess Friendster will still be around a little while longer.

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