Press Releases (Back to Press Center)
FRIENDSTER EXPANDS GLOBAL EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT TEAM
Friendster Hires Senior Vice President of Product, Chief Financial Officer
and Vice President of Business Operations
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – March 3, 2009 – Friendster, Inc., a top 20 global website based on traffic* and the #1 social network in Asia, today announced that it has expanded its global executive management team. Friendster appointed Andy Spillane to senior vice president of product, Nimesh Shah to chief financial officer, and Karin Visnick to vice president of business operations. These strategic additions will strengthen Friendster's position as a leading global social network, and help drive growth in Asia and worldwide.
Andy Spillane joins Friendster as senior vice president of product and will be responsible for both product strategy and product management of Friendster’s portfolio of web and mobile products and services. Spillane brings over 20 years in product development and management to the team from leading technology companies including Netscape, AOL, and Yahoo!. Prior to joining Friendster, Spillane served as vice president of messaging and social media products at AOL where he provided strategic direction and management for AOL’s messaging & social media products including AIM, AIM Profiles, AIM Chat, and myAOL. Prior to AOL, Spillane was responsible for the management and direction of the world’s largest email service as vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Mail. Spillane will be based in Friendster’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Nimesh Shah joins Friendster as chief financial officer and brings more than 10 years of experience in finance and accounting to the team. Shah previously held the position of finance director while at Fairfax Digital, Australia's leading provider of online news and classifieds, for the past seven years. Prior to Fairfax, Shah held senior positions at Ernst & Young, Dell Computer and UUNET. As CFO, Shah will manage Friendster's global financial planning, statutory and management reporting, auditing and oversee corporate development initiatives. Shah will be based in Friendster’s Sydney, Australia office, along with CEO Richard Kimber.
Karin Visnick joins Friendster as vice president of business operations and will manage Friendster’s worldwide business operations, including customer care, legal, human resources, corporate operations and business processes. Visnick has more than 10 years experience in business operations, product management and marketing at both start-ups and more established companies. Prior to her appointment to vice president of business operations, Visnick was vice president of product management at SNOCAP, Inc., a provider of digital licensing and copyright management services for the digital music marketplace, where she oversaw all product strategy and direction. Prior to SNOCAP, she held executive and management positions at HSBC and Yahoo!. Visnick will be based in Mountain View, California.
“The addition of Andy, Nimesh and Karin to Friendster’s global executive management team will help fuel Friendster’s growth in Asia and continue to build on its success as a leading social network,” said Richard Kimber, chief executive officer at Friendster. “Their combined experience and track record of success at consumer internet, technology and media companies will help us execute on our product and business strategies,” he said.
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 100 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.
# # #
Media Contact:
Lerin O'Neill
The Hoffman Agency for Friendster
+1.408.832.7083 (m)
+1.408.975.3037 (o)
press@friendster.com
*comScore Media Metrix, Worldwide Data, December 2008