AOL sent to its competitors on Mar. 13 after it forked over $850 million for California online social network Bebo, the third-largest such site in the U.S. behind Facebook and MySpace.
The acquisition gives AOL's parent company, Time Warner (TWX), access to Bebo's predominantly teen audience, as well as providing a platform to compete against the other social networks in the battle for online advertising revenue.
Web 2.0 offerings such as social networks are growing faster than their better-established online counterparts.
Launched three years ago, Bebo now boast 40 million users worldwide. Its growth is buoyed by its popularity with pre-teens and young teenagers, who have flocked to the site as older Internet users have turned to MySpace and Facebook. According to Nielsen Online, unique visits to Bebo in January topped 7.1 million, a 60% increase from the same period last year.
Read the full story at BusinessWeek
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