Bebo
Born 2005. Died August 2013.
Bebo passed in August 2013, having lived eight years as the social network that found its home in Britain and Ireland. Born in 2005, it offered a profile and a quiz. At its peak it claimed forty million users. AOL acquired it in 2008 for eight hundred fifty million dollars. Facebook arrived. Users left. The company sold it for less. In July 2013 the founder bought it back for one million. In August he shut it down. A video announced the end: I think we can all agree, it’s time to wipe the slate clean. The traffic crashed the site. The relaunch failed. He is survived by the memory of a platform that was never American but was home to millions, and by the conviction that sometimes the only way forward is to wipe the slate clean.
I think we can all agree, it's time to wipe the slate clean.
Acquired and neglected
Mourned by Those who connected in Britain and Ireland, teenagers who decorated profiles before Facebook arrived, and anyone who remembers when a social network could still feel like a school.
The founder, who bought it back for one million after selling it for eight hundred fifty; the relaunch, which failed; and the memory of forty million users who moved on.