SINGAPORE: The 7th largest website in the world and top social network in Asia, announced Friday that its users in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines will soon be able to subscribe to Friendster Text Alerts.

This is Friendster’s second mobile offering which complements Friendster’s successful mobile site, m.friendster.com, launched in May 2008.

When launched, Friendster users can subscribe to receive text message alerts for friend requests, new messages, comments, bulletins and more. When such activity takes place within their network of friends on Friendster, they will receive an SMS text message on their mobile phone.

Users will also be able to respond, share and communicate on Friendster by sending a text message to Friendster to update content on their profile, send messages, and reply to friend requests.

Jeff Roberto, marketing and PR at Friendster, told channelnewsasia.com no specific dates have been given yet to launch Friendster Text Alerts but it's understood it could happen in the coming weeks.

Friendster Text Alerts is an enhanced offering based upon a pilot program previously introduced in the Philippines.

“Recent studies have shown that about 90% of Asia’s mobile phone subscribers use SMS text messaging, and some of the highest per subscriber usage of text messaging is in countries in Southeast Asia. It’s only natural to combine the most popular mobile feature – text messaging – with the most popular social network in Asia,” said David Jones, vice president of global marketing for Friendster.

There are also reportedly plans to roll out this mobile text alert service to other parts of the world. Though, once again, Roberto says no specific dates or countries can be disclosed at the moment.

Friendster users are required to opt-in, or register, to use Friendster Text Alerts by entering their mobile phone details and selecting which mobile text alerts they wish to receive on their Friendster settings page.

Friendster does not charge its users for Friendster Text Alerts, but users are still subject to text messaging usage fees of their telephone and wireless service provider. - CNA/os