From Facebook status updates to Linkedin connections, social media is hot. Unless you’re AOL (News - Alert).

The once-unstoppable Internet giant is reportedly planning to shut off or sell its Bebo online community just two years after purchasing it for $850 million.

AOL’s Jon Brod, who runs the company’s AOL Ventures acquisition and investment unit, reportedly said in an e-mail to employees Tuesday that Bebo requires a “significant investment” of capital to stay alive.

One thing working in Bebo’s favor is that it has been strong in the United Kingdom and other markets. AOL apparently hoped “to tap that strength abroad to drive traffic to AOL's other free, ad-supported Web sites, especially internationally, while leveraging AOL's instant-messaging communities, AIM and ICQ, to try to grow Bebo in the United States,” the Associated Press reported.

According to comScore Inc., Bebo had 5.1 million U.S. users in February, a drop from 5.8 million users one year earlier. Meanwhile, Facebook (News - Alert) has more than 200 million users.

AOL was not immediately available for comment.