Once-popular social site may soon go away

Bebo, once one of Britain's top 3 social network sites, is likely either to be shut down or sold by AOL, which acquired it two years ago for $850 million, according to numerous news reports. Citing comScore figures, The Guardian reports that "Bebo's global unique visitors in February totalled 12.8 million," down 45% from the February 2009 figures. That's compared to this past February's traffic for Facebook, at 462 million visitors, MySpace (nearly 110 million), and Twitter (69.5 million). The Guardian quotes unnamed sources as saying Bebo's demise had to do with the acquisition by a large company of a startup that was heading into decline. The Wall Street Journal quotes an AOL memo to employees as saying "AOL is not in a position at this time to further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking."