The Next Web

Former StudiVZ senior executive: “Facebook tried to buy us”

Written on August 8, 2008 – 10:43 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

On July 19th Facebook allegedly filed a copyright lawsuit against German copycat StudiVZ, in what they claim is an infringement of Facebook’s “look, feel, features and services”. The International Herald Tribune has picked up this story and brings a former StudiVZ senior executive up to the stage. He revealed that Facebook had been negotiating for months to buy the German social network. This didn’t work out and now both parties are on their way to the court house.

StudiVZ ten times the size of Facebook.de

The German version of Facebook was launched in March, after 2000 German users voluntarily fixed the translating job in less than two weeks. Yet so far, Facebook hasn’t managed to attract a large German audience. StudiVZ had 12.2 million users in June, which is about ten times of the size of Facebook.de. So like my co-editor Patrick de Laive predicted in January; an acquisition of StudiVZ would immediately solve Facebook’s German problems.

“Facebook may have the superior technology, but it doesn’t have the users in Germany,” said the executive to the IHT, “That is what Facebook wants with StudiVZ.”

Many times 85 million euros

What makes this story extra interesting, is that StudiVZ was bought by the large German media company Holtzbrinck Group for around 85 million euros. Facebook has to pay several times this price. Apparently, Facebook wasn’t willing to accept this bid and now uses the copyright lawsuit as a encouragement for the Holtzbrinck Group to sell the German clone.

So why isn’t Facebook.de popular?

So much for the business details, let’s touch a different subject now. Why isn’t Facebook popular in Germany? Well, for the same reason Facebook isn’t hitting it off in Holland. The local network was there first. People have gone through all the trouble of connecting to their friends. So why would they - all of a sudden - switch to an international version?

There’s of course the group of people with a higher education who join Facebook to keep in touch with people they’ve met during international exchange programs. But the majority of German and Dutch people are satisfied with StudiVZ and Hyves. They can send messages to their friends, connect with old classmates, what more to ask for?

I hope you like that post!

The Next Web Blog covers start-up news from all over the world (not just the Valley), exciting new technologies and inspiring entrepreneurs. If you're new here, you may want to read our 'About' page and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Do you have a start-up that we should write about? Contact us! Thanks for visiting and hope you come back again!

facebook, germany, Holtzbrinck, Holtzbrinck Group, International Herald Tribune, social networks, studivz

2 Comments »

Facebook sues German copycat, more to come?

Written on July 19, 2008 – 7:35 pm
Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor

Facebook has started to take action against their copycats, and filled a copyright lawsuit against German copycat StudiVZ, in what they claim is an infringement of Facebook’s “look, feel, features and services”. This claim is filled a month after Facebook won the accusation filled by ConnectU, claiming that Mark Zuckerberg was a copy cat and stole the social platform idea in 2004.

Facebook in Germany

Facebook has launched a German version of their social network a few months ago, but has problems to attract visitors. StudiVZ claims to have 10 million users, and call themselves “the most successful social network in Germany, Austria and Switzerland”. Their website is not only similar in usage, it also looks a lot like Facebook. The biggest differences are the color conventions and that the copy does not offer an English interface. Techcrunch reports that StudiVZ was acquired this year for about $100 million. (€ 63 million)

Other copycats are next?

Washington Post reports that there are nine other facebook clones out there, and expects Chinese owned Xiaonei, with an exact duplicate to be next. Facebook has to protect their brand and experience, but a but a laugh every once and a while is important too, let’s hope that parodies as Crackbook, Arsebook and Rightwingfacebook are taken with some sense of humor by the Facebook’s lawyers. As entrepreneurs, the people behind estudiLN have cashed their successful copycat approach.

copy cat approach, facebook, germany, lawsuit, studivz

4 Comments »