Friendster Is Back, But Not the Way You Remember It

If you were online in the early 2000s, there’s a good chance Friendster was one of your first social media accounts. Before likes, reels, and endless scrolling became normal, Friendster was where many millennials first built their online circles. It was the place for profile customization, top friends drama, and of course, asking people for “testi.”

Now, after being gone for years, Friendster is officially back online. But if you’re expecting the same old website from before, you’re in for a surprise.

The new Friendster is no longer a website. It has returned as an iPhone app with a new direction and a new slogan: “social networking, without the nonsense.” There’s no Android app yet, and no browser version either. For now, it’s built only for iOS users who want to try something familiar, but different.

What makes this comeback even more interesting is that Friendster isn’t owned by some giant tech company. It’s now in the hands of just one person, Mike Carson, who decided to bring the brand back after buying the domain name.

According to Carson, the Friendster domain had been inactive for years after the original platform shut down. Eventually, the domain expired and ended up on auction through GNAME, where another buyer picked it up for around $7,456. Instead of rebuilding the social network, that owner simply placed ads on the site and earned money from its leftover traffic.

Carson later approached him with an offer. His first bid was $20,000, but the owner wanted $40,000. After some negotiation, they landed on a deal that included around $20,000 worth of Bitcoin plus another domain that was earning roughly $9,000 a year in ad revenue. In the end, Carson says the total deal was around $30,000.

That wasn’t the only thing he had to secure. The Friendster trademark was also close to expiring, and after working through the legal process, Carson was able to take ownership of that too. That meant he could fully relaunch Friendster under its original name.

His original idea for the new Friendster was actually pretty creative. To add someone as a friend, users had to physically tap their phones together in real life. The idea was simple, friendships should start face-to-face, not through random follows or friend requests from strangers.

At first, even signing up required tapping phones with an existing user. But Apple rejected that version of the app because it was considered too limited for wider users. So Carson changed it. Now anyone can sign up freely, but the phone-tap feature for adding friends remains part of the experience.

That’s actually what makes this new Friendster interesting. In a time when most social media platforms are focused on engagement, algorithms, and keeping people online as long as possible, Friendster seems to be going the other way. It’s trying to encourage actual real-world interaction.

For Filipinos, this comeback feels extra nostalgic. Friendster was huge in the Philippines back in the day. Before Meta Platforms and Facebook became the default social network, Friendster was where everyone hung out online. Profile songs, colorful layouts, and top friends rankings were a big deal.

And then there were testimonials, or “testi” as everyone called them. If you had an account back then, you probably remember asking your friends to write one for you. It was basically the original public shoutout, part friendship proof, part online scrapbook.

The internet has changed a lot since Friendster disappeared. Social media is louder now, faster, and more crowded. Maybe that’s why this comeback feels interesting. Instead of trying to be the next big thing, Friendster seems to be aiming for something simpler, a smaller space for real connections.

Will it become as big as it once was? Probably not. The online world is very different now.

But for those who remember the old days, just seeing Friendster alive again feels like finding an old yearbook, familiar, nostalgic, and full of memories.

And honestly, if enough Filipinos jump back in, don’t be surprised if “pa-testi naman” makes a comeback too.

(via Mike Carson)