Former StudiVZ senior executive: “Facebook tried to buy us”
Story byErnst-Jan Pfauth
Ernst-Jan Pfauth is the former Editor in Chief of Internet at NRC Handelsblad, as well as an acclaimed technology author and columnist. He a(show all)Ernst-Jan Pfauth is the former Editor in Chief of Internet at NRC Handelsblad, as well as an acclaimed technology author and columnist. He also served as The Next Web’s blog’s first blogger and Editor in Chief, back in 2008. AtDe Correspondent, Ernst-Jan serves as publisher, fostering the expansion of the platform.
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StudiVZ ten times the size of Facebook.de
The German version of Facebook was launched in March, after2000 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 Laivepredictedin 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 companyHoltzbrinck Groupfor 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?
