“Multiply will continue to maintain the social network (blogging, sharing) platform and services.” That was a response I got from Indonesia’s marketplace Multiply when I asked them about the future of its blogging platform back on July 18. That curiosity was triggered by an audience member who asked a similar question to Daniel Tumiwa, the country manager of Multiply Indonesia, during his recent Creative and Innovation seminar.

So it came as a surprise to many, and a disappointment to quite a few others, when Multiply announced today that it is going to discontinue its social networking, blogging, and sharing services on December 1, 2012. That'll leave the site primarily as an e-commerce business.

Stefan Magdalinski (pictured above), the CEO of Multiply, has issued a formal announcement regarding the decision. It explains the reason is so as to focus the company's attention on its e-commerce marketplace feature, and it also lets users know that Multiply will help them to save their social content or migrate it to other online services. More details about this are soon to follow.

Multiply will also refund any unused balance for existing premium Multiply social subscribers. You can see the full letter below:

Hello. Stefan here, writing you from Multiply HQ in Jakarta, Indonesia.

As most of you are probably aware, Multiply's mission has evolved over the past year and a half to become the biggest and most beloved ecommerce marketplace in two very exciting markets, Indonesia and the Philippines. As our focus has shifted, we have reviewed all of our operations, and made some decisions that will affect everyone here.

From December 1st, we will unfortunately no longer be able to support Multiply in its current form - notably we will be removing the social networking and content sharing part of Multiply (photos, videos, blogs, social messaging, etc.). We have decided to discontinue providing and hosting these services, as we have concluded that other Internet sites who are committed to social networking services will do a better job serving you than we can.

For our existing users of social networking features, we will be providing easy ways for you to either download your stuff (photos, blogs, content, etc), or migrate it to other online services. We'll announce the precise details shortly. It will be your choice whether to download, migrate or just let your content lapse (and get deleted). For our existing ecommerce users (both buyers and sellers) in Indonesia and the Philippines, there will be no action required.

Regarding any existing Multiply Premium subscriptions we will refund any unused balance, and apologize for any inconvenience this will cause. Please contact customer service to request a refund. Note that this is for Multiply Premium, not the ecommerce related Multiply Trust product.

I am aware of how disruptive this news may be, and understand the disappointment that it may cause. Ultimately this was a business decision, critical to our to success moving forward. Instead, we are excited to pursue our own mission to give the 350 million consumers in Indonesia and the Philippines a great way to buy and sell items online. Our singular focus now is for Multiply to retain its status as a vibrant e-commerce destination in Southeast Asia in the years ahead.

I suspect that many of you will not like this news, and am sorry to have to deliver it now. I hope that you will be able to understand the reasons for our decision and thank you for being a part of the Multiply community over the past eight years.

-- Stef