Belgian social media site Netlog pulls the plug

Netlog, the Ghent-based social network that was at one point more popular with young people in Belgium than Facebook, is no longer operating. Owners Massive Media have pulled the site, and users are now directed to one of its other properties, Twoo.com.

Netlog was first launched as Redbox, an early version of an online community created by two young Gentenaars, Toon Coppens and Lorenz Bogaert in 1999. In the beginning it was Belgian only, becoming Europe-wide in 2005.

In 2007, the two merged Redbox with their other site, Facebox, changed the name to Netlog, and cashed in a venture capital injection of €5 million. The site had 63 million users, and two years later won an award in the category Mainstream and Large Social Networks. Netlog by then was market leader in Europe.

By 2011, however, Facebook passed Netlog in local user accounts. Many left their Netlog accounts to lie dormant, but even more deleted their Netlog accounts to move to Facebook.

In 2012, Massive Media was bought by US media company IAS for €18.9 million, but IAS was only interested in Twoo.com, the new dating site created by Coppens and Bogaert earlier that year. Twoo currently has about 108 million accounts, 15 million considered active.

“We’ve started mailing our [Netlog] users, who will have the chance to download data from their Netlog archive,” Bogaert told VRT News. “We will also be inviting them to open an account with Twoo.”

photo: Netlog founders Toon Coppens (left) and Lorenz Bogaert
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