WHAT IS MULTIPLY (OR WHAT IT WAS…)
Multiply was a social networking service with an emphasis on allowing users to share media – such as photos, videos and blog entries – with their “real-world” network. The website was launched in March 2004 and is privately held with backing by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Point Judith Capital, Transcosmos, and private investors. Multiply has over 11 million registered users. The company was headquarterd in Boca Raton, Florida but moved to Jakarta, Indonesia early in 2012 and recently announced intentions to switch to e-commerce, dropping the social networking aspect entirely. Quantcast estimates Multiply has 3.5 million monthly U.S. unique visitors.
On Multiply, a user’s network was made up of their direct contacts, as well as others who are closely connected to them through their first-degree relationships. Additionally, users were encouraged to specify the nature of their relationship with one another, making it possible to share content with their entire network of closely related people, or subsets thereof including friends, family, professional contacts, and so on.
Multiply Announces Closure of Social Networking Sites
An official announcement by Multiply’s CEO, Stefan Magdalinski, was made on August 9, 2012, that the social networking portion of Multiply would be discontinued, including hosted blogs, videos, photos and messaging, in order to focus solely on e-commerce. From Wikipedia: Multiply.
For the last 7 years and half I used the social services of Multiply to build a personal site – mkenobi.multiply – and a Discussion Group of Cinema Cult – cultmovies.multiply – there, both in Portuguese because I’m from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I spent thousand of hours of work online posting in these two Multiply pages, I made some friends on there and I have a fluent social network too. I chose to use Multiply and not Facebook, Twitter or Orkut, because the tools offered by Multiply are amazing, like the possibility to manipulated the HTML of the page as you wish. Now, came a Mister from nowhere to tell me and to my buddies that all of that is to be finished at December 1st. What do you do if someone from hell tells you that Facebook, Twitter, MSN or Orkut will be closed forever???
You can read the full stab letter below, if you wish:
“Hello. Stefan here, writing you from Multiply HQ in Jakarta, Indonesia.
As most of you are probably aware, Multiply’s mission has evolved over the past year and a half to become the biggest and most beloved ecommerce marketplace in two very exciting markets, Indonesia and the Philippines. As our focus has shifted, we have reviewed all of our operations, and made some decisions that will affect everyone here.
From December 1st, we will unfortunately no longer be able to support Multiply in its current form – notably we will be removing the social networking and content sharing part of Multiply (photos, videos, blogs, social messaging, etc.). We have decided to discontinue providing and hosting these services, as we have concluded that other Internet sites who are committed to social networking services will do a better job serving you than we can.
For our existing users of social networking features, we will be providing easy ways for you to either download your stuff (photos, blogs, content, etc), or migrate it to other online services. We’ll announce the precise details shortly. It will be your choice whether to download, migrate or just let your content lapse (and get deleted).
For our existing ecommerce users (both buyers and sellers) in Indonesia and the Philippines, there will be no action required.
Regarding any existing Multiply Premium subscriptions we will refund any unused balance, and apologize for any inconvenience this will cause. Please contact customer service to request a refund. Note that this is for Multiply Premium, not the ecommerce related Multiply Trust product.
I am aware of how disruptive this news may be, and understand the disappointment that it may cause. Ultimately this was a business decision, critical to our to success moving forward. Instead, we are excited to pursue our own mission to give the 350 million consumers in Indonesia and the Philippines a great way to buy and sell items online. Our singular focus now is for Multiply to retain its status as a vibrant e-commerce destination in Southeast Asia in the years ahead.
I suspect that many of you will not like this news, and am sorry to have to deliver it now. I hope that you will be able to understand the reasons for our decision and thank you for being a part of the Multiply community over the past eight years.
Stef”
Now You can read my two comments about this disappointing news, published there:
“What the hell… I believed on you for the last 8 years, I chose Multiply and not Orkut, Twitter or Facebook… and now you came here to say all of these bullshit? All friends, time, posts that I made and published here will be lost like tears in rain? What a miss of time… Please, change this decision. And migrate? Migrate for where??? All you there are out of mind…”
“I’ve downloaded and saved all the things that I posted on my site http://mkenobi.multiply.com and my created group http://cultmovies.multiply.com in my PC, and I have two blogs on WordPress under the same nick here. All these contents will be posted on WordPress soon. By me, you Stefan and all your stupid crew can go to hell with the Multiply new format. You are shooting in your own feet and will make a lot of shit, but who cares with you??? I’ll see you in Hell.”
I’m very sad about it but life must go on. Even the virtual life…
All That I Love 