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Friendster Users Can Now Send Money Via GCASHMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb 10, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Millions of Friendster Users Can Now Send and Receive Money from Family and Friends - An Industry First Friendster, Inc., a top 20 global website based on traffic* and the #1 social network in Asia, today announced that it has launched support for users located in the Philippines and abroad to send and receive money on Friendster via the GCASH payment solution. This launch makes Globe Telecom the first partner to enable money transfer on Friendster, through its wholly-owned subsidiary G-Xchange, Inc. (GXI), and their flagship GCASH mobile commerce platform. Friendster is the first major social network to enable money transfer via partner platforms. Today, more than 13 million active members in the Philippines and over 95 million registered users around the world can utilize this new feature to conveniently, quickly, affordably, and securely send and receive money from family, friends, and business associates anytime and anywhere. From the Friendster web site, to initiate the process of sending money to another user, a user simply associates their Friendster account with their GCASH mobile phone number. Users can send money to any other Friendster user who is also a GCASH subscriber, where the transaction is securely completed using SMS text messages from the authorized mobile phone and the mobile PIN provided by the owner. Friendster users with a Globe mobile number can begin sending money by registering their mobile number on the Friendster mobile registration page: http://www.friendster.com/registermobile.php. To send or receive GCASH, users must also enable their mobile number by registering for the GCASH service on their phones. Information on registration is available on the GCASH website at http://www.g-cash.com.ph. Once a mobile number is registered and enabled, users can send money to anyone in their friends list by simply viewing the profile of the intended recipient and clicking the "Send GCASH" button. Users then enter the amount of money to transfer which initiates a confirmation SMS text message to appear on the sender's mobile phone. The sender confirms the money transfer using their mobile PIN. This confirmation process ensures that only the owner of the GCASH account can authorize the funds transfer. After the text message confirmation is received from the sender, money is transferred to the recipient's mobile phone GCASH account, completing the transaction. Transaction fees are P2.50 per transaction for Globe subscribers. "By enabling online money transfer, we've made it significantly easier for users in the Philippines and their family and friends all over the world to securely send money easily, affordably and quickly," said David Jones, vice president of global marketing at Friendster. "With over 90 percent of internet users in the Philippines on Friendster and many Filipinos around the world, including overseas foreign workers, also on Friendster, millions can now transfer money with ease directly from their preferred social network," he said. "We are excited to be the first mobile partner in the Philippines to launch and enable money transfers through GCASH on Friendster user accounts," said GXI President Rizza Maniego-Eala. "This strengthens our goal of building seamless connections between mobile and online money transfers and payments. Having Friendster as a partner reinforces our vision of providing Filipinos with more innovative, relevant and easy to use mobile financial services," she added. Friendster Leads in the Philippines In the Philippines, Friendster is the #1 social network, the #2 website and the #1 mobile site.** Friendster is an order of magnitude larger than competitors in the Philippines. Friendster had over 13 million monthly unique visitors from the Philippines in December 2008,*** which is 93 percent, or virtually all of the 14 million Internet users in the country. A typical user spends 30 minutes a day on Friendster and visits Friendster several times a week, communicating with friends and sharing and consuming content through a suite of features, which also creates a great platform for local advertisers. Friendster Leads in Asia and is a Top 20 Global Website Friendster is the #1 social network in Asia, with over 75 million registered users. Plus, Asia is the largest market of Internet users (Asia has 41 percent of the world's Internet users, more than double the 19 percent from the U.S.), and Asia is the fastest growing region in the world.* Friendster has a loyal and growing user base throughout Asia in the following top 10 countries: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea. Friendster is a top 20 global website in the world in terms of traffic, serving over 16 billion page views a month.* Friendster is also a leader in "user engagement" among the top five global social networks, with users spending an average of 147 minutes per visitor per month on www.friendster.com.* About Friendster With more than 95 million members worldwide, Friendster is a leading global online social network. Friendster is focused on helping people stay in touch with friends and discover new people and things that are important to them. Online adults, 18 and up, choose Friendster to connect with friends, family, school, social groups, activities and interests. Friendster prides itself in delivering an easy-to-use, friendly and interactive environment where users can easily connect with anyone around the world via www.friendster.com or m.friendster.com from any Internet-ready mobile device. Friendster has a growing portfolio of patents granted to the company on social networking, with more expected over the next several months. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Friendster is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, IDG Ventures and individual investors. For more information, visit: www.friendster.com. *comScore Media Metrix, Worldwide Data, December 2008 **Opera State of the Mobile Web Report, December 2008 ***Google Analytics and Friendster Internal Data, December 2008 SOURCE Friendster, Inc. http://www.friendster.com |