Ah remember Bebo. Back in the noughties before facebook really caught on in Ireland, it was all about Bebo - Writing on people's walls, posting whiteboard doodles to other people's pages, making sure your flash box was updated with the latest funny video, deciding how to divvy out your three "loves" each day and rearranging your top 16 friends.
It was a simpler time. And then somewhere along the line it all went to pot and the mass Bebo exodus of the mid noughties saw user figures dwindling from its 40 million peak as everyone migrated to facebook.
Back when it was a real contender Bebo creators Michael and Zxiochi Birch sold the website to AOL in 2008 for a sweet $850m (€653m). After a further drop in users, the former social networking giant was sold again but this time for the significantly tamer figure of $10m (€7.6m). Then in May of this year Bebo sought bankruptcy and Mr. Birch has gone and bought if back from the receivers... but for a fraction of its original selling price: $1m. Now that's how you do business!
Mr. Birch took to Twitter and hinted at a possible re-launch: "Can we actually reinvent it? Who knows, but it will be fun trying..."
But with the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr and Instagram ruling the social networking roost will a new Bebo have any chance of regaining a foothold in the market? Would you go back to Bebo after its years of uselessness? We'll hold off on judgement until we see what this potential relaunch brings.
