MANILA, Philippines ? What does one do with a social networking site that was once a household name, but has since been overtaken by its rivals?

In the case of Friendster?once wildly popular in the Philippines, and around the world?the answer was obvious for MOL Global, one of Southeast Asia?s biggest Internet companies.

MOL global recently acquired 100 percent of Friendster Inc., the world?s pioneer social networking site with more than 115 million members worldwide. This paves the way for a convergence of products and services offered by Friendster with the convenience, power and accessibility of MOL AccessPortal Berhad (MOL), a payment systems provider also fully owned by MOL Global.

Essentially, MOL provides Internet users a simple, easy-to-obtain virtual currency. This virtual currency is used to purchase virtual goods, online games and applications, and other products and services over the Internet.

MOL operates and develops such payments systems all over the world, handling some 60 million transactions with an annual payment volume of $20 million. MOL payment systems allow commercial transactions online and offline through a network of 500,000 collections points across 75 countries.

Last month, MOL Global went into a strategic partnership with Facebook, making MOL a payment provider for Facebook Credits.

Facebook Credits are used to purchase various online goods, games and other applications on Facebook.

Through the MOL Global-Facebook partnership, Facebook members may now acquire credits using MOL points on Facebook and on the MOL web site, www.mol.com.

In the next few months, Facebook members will be able to obtain credits through MOL points purchased at more than 500,000 physical collection points in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Australia and New Zealand. In some of these countries, the collection points include 7-Eleven stores, cyber cafés, and partner banks.

MOL Global also recently partnered with PayPal in Malaysia to launch the prepaid ?MOL PayPal Digital Card.? The partnership combines the capabilities and networks of PayPal and MOL, allowing Internet users in Malaysia to do their online shopping and purchase online games with more ease, convenience and security.

A virtual currency, such as the one provided by MOL, allows users to purchase online games, applications, products and services over the Internet without having to use a conventional credit card, where credit card penetration is low in the country.

Ganesh Kumar Banga, group chief executvie officer of MOL Global, met members of the Philippine press to share his insights into the benefits of virtual currency and how partnerships with social networking sites provide win-win solutions to both consumers and merchants.

Banga discussed how MOL Global?s acquisition of Friendster and recent partnership with Facebook and PayPal will benefit Filipino Friendster users. He also talked about Friendster?s new features and services, like Friendster Music and Friendster Games.