ITV relaunch of Friends Reunited proves a success

LONDON - Friends Reunited, the ITV-owned social networking site, drew 5.5m unique users in July, which is almost three times the 2m it had during April, just before it relaunched as a free service.

The user figures, supplied by Nielsen, show that 5.2m of the total were from the UK. In addition the group of Friends Reunited sites, which include Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating as well as the main site, attracted 6.6m users in July.

Subscription charges for the main site were dropped at the beginning of May after ITV decided to move to a purely advertising based revenue model, which is expected to capitalise on making video a feature on the site.

The site is hoping its relaunch and accompanying £8m ad campaign, created by Hurrell Moseley Dawson Grimmer, will bring back some of the 19m people who have registered with it over the years.

The relaunch introduced features such as a timeline, which allows members to share events from each other's past. More than 200,000 events have been added to timelines since.

Andy Baker, managing director of Friends Reunited, said: "One of the main reasons for our success is that we have made use of new, easy-to-use, no-nonsense features aimed squarely at helping UK grown-ups stay in touch with their friends online."

He added: "Friends Reunited is preparing for the launch of new features to be released later in 2008 which will further extend its position as the leading UK social network for grown ups.

"One of the areas we're most excited about is the rampant growth of video across the other ITV portfolio sites and online generally, which presents opportunities to add considerable value for the communities developing on the site."

 

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