Multiply, which the site closure and cessation of business operations last May 6, 2013, and May 31, 2013, along with the official online channels for the site had been removed along with all its content, including its YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts, after it announced to shut down its social networking services on August 9, 2012.
Launched in March 2004 in Boca Raton, Florida, Multiply had around 11 million registered users. It transferred to Jakarta, Indonesia in 2012 when it switched from a social networking site to an e-commerce site.
Its official entry in the Philippines started out in November 2007 when it made an ad deal with the local television network ABS-CBN.
On November 17, 2008, ABS-CBN made an announcement that it bought a 5% minority stake in Multiply.com.
By October 2010, Multiply was increasing its foothold in the Philippines and started looking for a General Manager.
On April 26, 2013, Multiply announced it will close Multiply Indonesia and Multiply International websites as of May 6, 2013. All business activities of Multiply will be terminated on May 31, 2013.
The cause of the closing of the Multiply site is because Multiply is expected to fail to reach the leading position in the e-commerce industry with a sustainable business model. Multiply CEO Stefan Magdalinski acknowledged that the total change of the Multiply business model from social networking to e-commerce sites was unsuccessful.
After May 6, the rest of the month will be used to ensure that all accounts are settled and merchants get full payment for their transactions, it said.
Multiply said the month-long grace period will provide its users enough time to find and migrate to alternative e-commerce platforms, settle all payments on items bought and delivered, and minimize disruption to the businesses of its users.
“Multiply will ensure that you receive all funds you earned on the platform no later than May 31, 2013. We will close the actual marketplace sooner, on May 6, 2013, to ensure that all orders have sufficient time to complete and be delivered to your customers before the end of the month,” it said.
In March 2013, the Multiply International site has been completely closed and inaccessible, after previously Multiply only blocked access to Multiply.com from the IP address of Indonesia. The promise of Multiply to make a repayment of Premium account holders was never kept.
On June 12, 2013, they had put in place Rp 8.9 billion for wages owed to former Multiply staff.
The Labour Department said earlier that around 3,000 former Multiply staff had applied for compensation through the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund, a safety net for employees affected by business closures.
Multiply Investor Secretary Rong Rongbin pledged shares of Star Platinum Corporation, which holds 99% of its shares, to borrow HK$300 million from Xiesheng Xiefeng to save the Multiply website but did not repay on time; therefore, Xiesheng Xiefeng in July 2013, it acquired the full equity of Star Platinum. It was also reported that about HK$35 million in unpaid wages of 640 former employees and HK$18 million of Insolvency Fund were also paid after the company has acquired its majority stake.
The High Court on June 17, 2013, its liquidation proceedings and removed accounting firm Deloitte from its role as the firm’s provisional liquidator.
Derek Lai, the vice-chair of Deloitte China, said on June 18, 2013, that since Star Platinum had already resolved the major debts Multiply incurred, it was unlikely the internet company would go into liquidation despite still owing smaller debts to other creditors including HSBC.
“Star Platinum needs to negotiate with the remaining creditors,” he said. “I hope they will support its restructuring with Multiply.”
He added that Multiply now had a cash flow of HK$10 million to be paid to other creditors as well as assets worth over HK$40 million.
In its latest financial report last month, Co-Prosperity said the deal with Multiply could help the group diversify its business. Apart from the online industry, the group focuses on fabric and clothing trading, money lending, and securities investments.
“The directors believe that the potential intrinsic value of Multiply can be realized if the plan to rescue Multiply is successful,” the report said.
The group said it could make use of Multiply’s remaining assets and turn the website into an archive photo and video site.
“The group has been granted access and usage of certain assets of Multiply which shall enable Multiply to continue to operate and act as an archive photo and video site taking advantage of its 100,000 square-meter facility and social networking portion that delivering 217 million accounts, 210 million photos, and 237,000 videos from the old Multiply from its launch in March 2004 to March 15, 2013,” it said.
On November 16, 2013, it allowed the controlling stake in the website to be formally sold to a foreign or mainland investor, who claimed a rescue plan for the troubled firm.
High Court judge Mr. Justice Jonathan Harris validated the transaction after hearing that the parties would no longer object to the share transfer and that the dues for the shares had been paid by Si.
It assures the process of reopening the Multiply website and recovering all photos and videos from user accounts from March 2004 to March 15, 2013.
The Congress of the Philippines through the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as the People's Consultative Assembly through the Regional Representative Council and People's Representative Council along with their business clubs and groups, will sign a joint manifestation to reopen Multiply as a social networking site.
"Sa mga ganitong panahon, mas kailangan ang mga advance mag-isip" - Vice Ganda, It's Showtime (ABS-CBN, September 12, 2018)
However, when President Rodrigo Duterte came to power on June 30, 2016, the website remains closed.
The site will be fully re-opened its operations 100 days after President Barack Obama stepped down in the office on January 20, 2017, at 12 noon (EST) and kept Facebook as the sole social networking site, but it wasn't materialized.
After the Inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20, 2017, Magdalinski made a successful appeal to Trump for the restoration of the website.
On May 2, 2017, the Indonesian Parliament approved the draft of re-opening Multiply.com, as well their operations, its subsidiary Multiply International and the social networking portion including 18 million users with hosted blogs, videos, photos, and messaging would be recovered and also voted and approved the draft of re-opening this website.
The website went down in history as the victim of the global financial crisis when it closed on May 6, 2013, and ceased all business operations on May 31, 2013.
On April 1, 2019, the company issued a bankruptcy court filing which stated that it would no longer auction off its intellectual property, since its controlling lender planned to "the business behind the Multiply brand name" with their new mobile app, delivering old accounts, photos and videos from the old Multiply from it's launch in March 2004 to March 15, 2013, and establishing new opportunities. The company evaluated that selling its brand at auction is "not reasonably likely to yield a superior alternative."
Magdalinski said he had proposed to the website’s board plans and strategies which would include another set of efforts that should bring the company to profitability in the next couple of years.
“I’ve actually presented to the board some of the things that I like to do and because of the current struggles of the business when it comes to views, and correspondingly revenues. So an important pivot that we will do is, of course, we will still continue to offer social networking, but we want to maximize the assets that we have, that have by putting in more shows that more and more people will use the computer,” Magdalinski said in an interview.
It is expecting to resume its operations next year, after it announced President Rodrigo R. Duterte lifted the closure on August 22.
“Hopefully, next week basta ma-comply nila lahat ng requirement (I hope net week for compliant operators),” Multiply.com Philippines president Katherine Chloe S. de Castro-Cruz told reporters in a briefing Friday.
On October 15, 2019, the response of Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, when asked about the bankruptcy and potential demise of e-commerce and social networking site Multiply.
There was no direct response when asked if the President's previous statements were true that he would approve the reopening of a website, Panelo said.
Such statements by the president were simply out of frustration.
The management announced that it would engage in a decade-long rehabilitation effort, including the importation of old and new features such as similar to Facebook Live until Multiply is reopened by June 1, 2025; however, there were plans to partially re-open within 2021 depending on the social networking portion.
On Monday, December 30, 2019, Duterte again warned Multiply CEO Stefan Magdalinski that syndicated estafa charges “have no bail” and that he was determined to see them in jail.
On January 2, 2020, President Duterte doesn’t just make threats, he will pursue the filing of syndicated estafa charges against the CEO and owner of defunct E-commerce and social networking site Multiply over financial difficulties and corporate rehabilitation, MalacaƱang said on Thursday.
“Pag sinabi ni Presidente, tutuluyan niya iyan (When the President says something, he will really do it),” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing.
It then began the arduous task of resuming its operations.
To recall, according to Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares, Chair of the Senate Public Services Committee, and Palawan Rep. Franz Alvarez on the process to reopen Multiply as a social networking site, to compete with Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines granted their application for an increase in capitalization and amendments to Multiply's articles of incorporation and by-laws.
Multiply inaugurated its office in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City in 2020 and began test broadcasts by the end of 2021, officially returning its operations.
Naspers will conduct a partial reopening of Multiply to former users by January 2022.
It said the dry run, scheduled from January 6 to 16, will allow the parent company to assess what else needs to be done before the website will be reopened to all users on June 30, 2022, at midnight Manila time.
Remember that House Bill has to be signed into law.
And it has to go through the Senate first (first reading, committee approval, 2nd reading, and 3rd reading) before being signed into law.
Bicam pa.
Seems the two Great Houses of Congress are fast these days. Let us see how fast they will approve this.
You missed a step, Committee Hearings on either Houses of Congress.
| Raffy Tulfo |
| Imee Marcos |
Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, will hold a public hearing on February 13, 2023, on the reopening of the social networking site Multiply.