Potential Closure of Bebo Threatens Brand Communities
Parent company AOL announced last week that it will close its social network platform Bebo if a buyer can't be found by May. If the closure goes ahead, it will force brands and agencies running campaigns on Bebo to migrate their community of fans to another platform or risk wasting their investment.
The reason for the potential closure of Bebo was explained by increased competition, which has left AOL unable to continue funding the site.
UK digital industry experts have said the closure of Bebo would be a missed opportunity by AOL, citing the site's strengths as being able to deliver a hard-to-reach audience and providing ad opportunities not offered by other youth sites.
Despite Bebo's championing by the industry, audience figures have fallen significantly over the past two years. A recent report from Nielsen Online shows Bebo's audience has fallen from 4.6m UK users in February 2008 to just 1.8m last February. ComScore figures show a 60% drop in visits over the past year.