Friends Reunited to focus on video

by Fiona Ramsay, Media Week 05-Aug-08, 10:05

LONDON - ITV-owned social network Friends Reunited plans to make video a key feature of the service as it looks to increase traffic and drive advertising revenue after scrapping subscription charges in May.

Andy Baker, managing director of Friends Reunited, said that with video views "going extremely well" for ITV.com, the company wants to bring more video to Friends Reunited.

Nielsen figures for the main Friends Reunited site are expected to reveal that in July it attracted five million visitors - a record number for the site - and "way over" six million for Friends Reunited, Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating combined.

Nielsen figures for June show it attracted 4.1 million visitors to the main site, up from two million in April.

ComScore figures for Friends Reunited grew from 1.7m in April to 3.1m in June, and for the group of sites from 2.4m in April to 3.7m in June.