The co-founder of Bebo has denied claims the social networking site has shut down, following the site going offline on Monday night.
Michael Birch, who launched the one time Facebook and Myspace rival with his wife in 2005, sparked confusion on Twitter on Monday night:
“Am super sad that Bebo has actually gone. Some very fun times with very cool people. #RIPbebo – keep sharing that luv!”
But it wasn’t long before he tweeted again, creating the mix up:
“Hold the press (too late for that). Bebo should be coming back in a matter of hours. #LongLiveBebo”.
According to reports Bebo has been taken offline because of technical problems.
Founded in 2005, Bebo was the most popular social networking site in Britain until 2007, whereupon it was overtaken by Facebook.
But since it was bought by AOL in 2008 for £540 million the site rapidly lost users and value.
AOL sold it just two years later to private equity firm Criterion Capital Partners for a fraction of the price paid for it, reportedly just £6.3million.