Bebo – once the UK’s most popular social network – is making a comeback.
Rumours of its return begun swirling last week, when people noticed a “coming soon” message on the site’s previously dormant homepage.
However, none of the buttons on the site worked, leading to many believe it was a hoax.
Co-founder Michael Birch has now revealed that he really is relaunching the site, and plans to provide an antidote to Facebook and Twitter.
When is Bebo coming back?
The message on Bebo’s homepage says it will be launching in February 2021, meaning it should go live in the next few weeks.
However, it will initially only be available to a select list of invitees.
The homepage says: “This is a totally new site developed by the original founders. All the old accounts are long gone (probably for the better, though sorry for the old photos!)”
It adds that Donald Trump is already banned from the site ahead of launch. “The world really IS moving forward!” it says.
Mr Birch launched Bebo- which stands for “blog early, blog often” – in 2005. It quickly gained popularity in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It boasted more than 40 million users at its peak.
He sold the site to AOL in 2008 for $850m (£623m), along with his wife Xochi, before later buying it back for $1 million, and converting it into an e-sports streaming site.
They sold that service to Twitch, owned by Amazon, for $25 million in 2019, but kept the rights to the Bebo brand.
How will the new Bebo work?
Mr Birch has described Bebo’s relaunch as “live social networking”.
“When you’re logged into Bebo you’re aware of which other friends are online.” he told BBC News.
“You can interact with them in real-time. You can comment on their photo on their profile. They’ll get notified, they’ll come to the photo, and they may even have a conversation under the photo.”
He added: “What we want to do is go back a little bit to this idea of a profile. That you have an identity you sort of take pride in. That you can visit a profile and see things that aren’t just the latest news articles being shared.”
Mr Birch said he is currently the only person coding the site, and is spending around 100 hours a week on it.
He said he does not expect Bebo to reach the heights of its ’00s heyday, but hopes to be able to disrupt the market.
