Bebo.com was founded in 2005, and was originally designed as a social network site for community members to share their interests in literature and music (Harris, S. 2008, March 14). The site has now evolved to a social network site that allows members to share photos, music, blogs, and ability to draw on white boards.

Most of Bebo’s unique visitors (62.5%) are from Europe (comscore, 2007).  Bebo is ranked as the third most popular social network site, but a considerable distance away from Facebook.com.  As of March 2008, they have more than 40 million members in the English-speaking world (Harris, S. 2008, March 14).  AOL announced they would purchase Bebo for $850 million dollars in March 2008. (Harris, S. 2008, March 14).

What makes Bebo unique is that it focuses on what’s hot in online videos, music, and authors.  The homepage of Bebo looks like a combination of profile pages, video content, ads, etc.

During the sign up process, Bebo asks users to submit a list of their favorite things – and categorizes items into: Music; Films; Sports; Scare Of; and Happiest When.

Users may also add their Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Skype, or Yahoo accounts so they can communicate with other members in real-time while on spending time on Bebo.com.

Members can also add their educational background – and employer information.

Once the profile is completed, the profile page is created – which can then be modified with various themes that may be created by the user.

Like most social network sites, there are various sections within each profile: list of friends, quizzes, polls, photo albums, white board, and comment area.

These themed pages can sometime be difficult to read (a la MySpace.com), but the navigation at the top of each profile allows an easy way to see each person’s blog, white board areas, photo gallery, list of friends, video library, etc.

Members may also send mail to members within Bebo.com – sort of like the InMail feature of Facebook.com.  These message sent within Bebo may include drawings, videos, photo albums, audio, and widgets.

Bebo also has an application directory that allows members to choose applications for their profile pages.  As of April 2008, there are approximately 1,870 applications.  The most popular applications are within the game and entertainment categories.

Demographics
The site seems to average around 3.5 million unique visitors per month – and it’s trending up.   And the majority of visitors are from the United Kingdom.