Michael and Xochi Birch, who are currently running 'ideas lab' Monkey Inferno, have regained control of the site they initially sold for almost one thousand times the current price. An announcement tweet suggests that rebuilding Bebo will be more of a personal challenge than a great financial ambition:
We just bought Bebo back for $1m. Can we actually re-invent it? Who knows, but it will be fun trying...
— Michael Birch (@mickbirch) July 1, 2013
In a statement, Birch elaborated by stating "we know the odds are stacked against us, but we love challenges and the Bebo users deserve better than what they have received the past few years".
The website, launched in July 2005, was sold to AOL for $850 million (€650 million) in 2008. However, Bebo was dramatically overtaken in popularity by competing social networks, particularly Facebook, and started losing both users and money. After threatening to close down Bebo for good, AOL eventually sold the site to Criterion Capital Partners for around €7.6 million in June 2010. The owners 'voluntarily' declared Bebo bankrupt in May 2013.
At its peak, Bebo (meaning Blog Early, Blog Often) was the most popular social network in the UK & Ireland, above the likes of MySpace. In recent years, Bebo has undergone several major redesigns in attempt to differentiate itself from competitors, even offering users the ability to sign in with their Facebook account.
The site now heavily emphasises social gaming and video services, and has become a popular niche site for users interested in online 'roleplaying' of television and film characters.
