From: ifriends.net
Thank You!
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the creation of the iFriends platform.
The world’s first “sharing economy” internet platform, iFriends was also among the world’s first many-to-many/peer-to-peer “Friends Network” social-networking services. 15 years before the emergence of products like Uber, Lyft and AirBnb — and more than 6 years before FaceBook — millions of iFriends users were already sharing their webcams and profile pages/fan clubs, in a way that connected people & enriched lives.
For 20 exciting years, more than 100,000 “video chathosts”, 10,000 marketing partners and other stakeholders have grown with us, realizing financial goals, raising families, paying off mortgages & car loans, putting children through college, and more.
We are proud of what we have all accomplished, working together. From chathosts to affiliates . . . From more than 10 million registered members to the hardworking people behind iFriends itself . . . we have brought smiles, success & friendship into each other’s lives. (It was no accident that the name we chose for our service – from the very beginning and before the first line of software code was written in the summer of 1998 – was, simply, “iFriends”)
But much can change in 20 years. In 2018 alone, the FCC-mandated demise of “net neutrality”, new legislative developments out of Washington DC, and certain costly patent litigation efforts have further transformed the business landscape in which we operate.
So, it is with some regret – but also with an enormous sense of pride and gratitude in what we have all achieved together – that we elect to use this 20-year anniversary milestone as a natural and organic moment to discontinue the platform, and to express our gratitude to you for twenty years of fellowship, support and for being our “iFriends”. As we wind down the service in an orderly and responsible manner, it is at this harmonious juncture that we say to our iFriends, “we are hereby closed for business.”
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”
– Seneca the Younger (4 BC – 65 AD), Stoic Philosopher, Ancient Rome
CHATHOSTS & MARKETING PARTNERS – YOUR PAYMENTS CONTINUE AS USUAL
All “back-office” functions – such as the continuation of payments and reserve releases to both chathosts and marketing partners – will continue as normal, until those obligations are satisfied. (“Payments like Clockwork” remains our motto, and payments will continue like clockwork.) While the service itself has been taken offline, rest assured that the professionalism, integrity and dependability for which we are known remains very much online: Our longtime support staff – known to many of you already – remain gainfully and securely employed (under long-term employment contracts) and will continue to remain available to you in the months ahead.
Questions? To learn more about how these developments affect you, click any of these links: