Bebo
Bebo (/ˈbiːboʊ/ BEE-boh) was an American social networking website that originally operated from 2005 until its bankruptcy in 2013 and relaunched in February 2021. The site relaunched several times after its bankruptcy with a number of short-lived offerings, including instant messaging and video streaming, until its acquisition by Amazon in July 2019 when it was shut down. It was announced in January 2021 that it would be returning as a new social media site the month after. By May 2022, it had once again been shut down, without having ever left beta testing.
This article is about the social networking site. For other uses, see Bebo (disambiguation).Type of business
January 2005[1]
May 2022
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Worldwide
The Monkey Inferno
bebo
July 2005
The site was founded by Michael Birch and Xochi Birch.
History[edit]
Founding and early years[edit]
Bebo was founded by husband-and-wife team Michael and Xochi Birch in January 2005 at their home in San Francisco.[1] The website name was bought by the founders, and the backronym "Blog Early, Blog Often" was invented to answer the question of what the name meant.[2][3]
The website, at the height of its popularity, overtook Myspace to become the most widely used social networking website in the United Kingdom, eventually registering at least 10.7 million unique users.[4][5]
Sale to AOL[edit]
Bebo's popularity saw it sold to AOL in March 2008 for $850 million, with the Birches' combined 70% stake yielding a profit of $595 million from the deal.[6][7] The BBC later described the AOL purchase of Bebo as "one of the worst deals ever made in the dotcom era",[8] and it cost the then-CEO of AOL, Randy Falco, his job.[9]
On April 7, 2010, AOL announced that it would either sell the website[10] or shut it down; this was mainly due to the falling numbers of unique users moving to rival site Facebook. AOL said that Bebo could not compete with other social networking sites in its current state and that the company could not commit to taking on the massive task to keep Bebo in the social network race. It was reported that AOL's finances were struggling.
The National Space Agency of Ukraine's RT-70 radio telescope sent 501 messages chosen by Bebo users, called A Message From Earth, toward planet Gliese 581c. Sent on 9 October 2008, it will arrive in the spring of 2028.[11][12][13]
Criterion Capital Partners ownership transfer[edit]
On June 16, 2010, AOL sold Bebo to hedge fund operators Criterion Capital Partners.[14][15]
On February 17, 2011, Bebo launched a brand-new design. This consisted of a new, more modern header and home page, as well as a new profile layout option. Users could also see who had visited their profiles (a feature which could be changed in settings). In April 2011, Bebo added a new notification system, similar to Facebook's – a feature which had been much-requested in feedback. It notified users of new inbox messages, lifestream activity and more.
On January 30, 2012, access to Bebo became unavailable for 36 hours, resuming normal service during the early hours of February 1, 2012. A Bebo spokesperson told TechCrunch that the site was down due to "a technical clusterfuck".[16] Adam Levin, CEO of Bebo and Criterion Capital Partners, stated that they were trying to release some new features which caused the site to crash. No data was lost as a result of the outage. The crash triggered a belief that Bebo was gone for good, so that the hashtag #bebomemories trended worldwide on Twitter.[17]
2013: Bankruptcy and sale[edit]
In May 2013, the company voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection;[18][19] however, Burke Capital Corporation receiver has clarified that Bebo remains "healthy" and "operating" and that the company was using its May 9 Chapter 11 filing in Los Angeles to "restructure some operational inefficiencies and other arrangements that are burdensome." Many analysts have questioned the value proposition that Bebo could offer users and do not fault CCP.[20]
On July 1, 2013, Michael and Xochi Birch, the original founders, purchased the social network back from Criterion Capital Partners (CCP) for $1 million.[21][22]
On August 6, 2013, messages were posted on Bebo.com informing users that the site would be down for maintenance from August 7, 2013. On August 7, 2013, a video featuring Michael announcing his plan for the new Bebo was placed on the front page of the site. The video informed users that the site would be taken down while the Bebo team developed the new product. Many believed that this would be normal maintenance; however, it was revealed that the site would be closed for a few months. The announcement also stated that all user content had been deleted, but users' blog posts and images would be retrievable in downloadable format should members opt in to receive this. However, members who submitted emails still have not retrieved profile data (pictures, blogs, etc.).[23]
2014–16: Return of Bebo and introduction of Bebo Blab[edit]
In April 2014, Bebo founder Michael Birch took to Bebo in a tongue-in-cheek video to promote the re-launch of Bebo with the slogan, "Probably Not for Boring People". The relaunch video emphasized Bebo's history in which it included its then-most popular feature: the white board.[24]
Bebo relaunched on January 7, 2015; announced with the new Bebo was a messenger app called Bebo Blab which was available on Google Play and Apple App stores. The app massed 3.9 million users in just one year. After two years of its re-launch, Bebo Blab shut down, as users weren't returning to the platform to watch archived streams on replay. Birch wrote:
