Another Important Message from Another CEO

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Original message:

Hello everyone.

Sorry for taking a few days to post my promised followup; Things are pretty busy for me, two weeks into a new country and new job. Also, I wanted to take the time to absorb your comments and get a feel for your sentiments.

Please allow me make some things clear, and I hope they go some way to dispelling some of the fear and uncertainty that people have expressed. 

I believe that social and commerce can more than co-exist; the social features of our site are what make the commerce so powerful.

Multiply is a global site, but has bigger reach in some markets than others, and we have chosen to base ourselves closer to the markets where we have the most active and growing communities. That is Indonesia and the Philippines.

Whenever there's a big change, people become anxious. No decisions have been made regarding one part of our community over another, or shutting down anything, or throwing anything out, or any of the various fears that have been voiced in the comments. 

In the 20 years I've been online, I've seen many communities come and go; I've had my own content and efforts suddenly disappear from under me. Only this week, a site I founded in 1998 finally, and sadly, went dark (I've not been involved since 2003). I know the pain that this can cause. 

So I promise this; if it ever turns out that such actions need to be taken:

• We'll give people plenty of warning.
• We'll provide means for people to export their content or migrate elsewhere. 

I think Multiply has a fantastic future; I've moved halfway round the world to be a part of it, and I hope we can all do it together. 

I'd like to thank Peter and the team for building Multiply into what it is today, and for all their ongoing help as we make the transition to South East Asia. They'll be working with us for a few months yet, though.

A last personal comment; I've never believed that the internet was about a single country, a single language, or a single community. The internet the first medium that truly allows the whole world to socialise. As well as ours, the majority of Google's users are non-US. Same for Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, and in fact, pretty much any site you choose to mention. 

Wherever you live, whatever you speak, whatever you believe (unless you believe that the beliefs of others are somehow inferior), you are welcome here.

Stef