SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--Oct 28, 2008 -- hi5, one of the world's largest and fastest-growing social networks, today announced its participation in the inaugural Google DevFest in Southeast Asia. This year's DevFest is a four-city, day-long technical workshop for developers to learn how to create OpenSocial(TM) applications for hi5 and a variety of other containers. DevFest is being organized in four Asian cities including Bangkok, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City and Manila. Registration numbers quickly exceeded venue capacity weeks in advance, reflecting the overwhelming interest by developers to build web applications on hi5 and other social networking platforms.

hi5 is among the fastest-growing websites in Asia. In Thailand alone, hi5 has over 8 million registered users, more than 50% of Thailand's internet population, making it the second most popular website of any kind in the country. The popular site's registered users in Thailand have increased over 200% this year alone, and hi5 is a top social networking site in many other countries throughout the region.

"Google's DevFest 2008 provides hi5 with the opportunity to reach the Asian development community in a very interactive, engaging and educational environment," said Akash Garg, CTO of hi5. "hi5 has been leading the charge within the OpenSocial community, with over 2,000 applications and over 70 million application installs on hi5.com. We believe developers and end users win the more open and interoperable social networks become, and that's why we have fully embraced OpenSocial and are one of its biggest proponents."

"At this year's DevFest, Google is excited to be working with hi5, one of the world's leading social networks and earliest supporters for OpenSocial, to reach out to thousands of developers across Southeast Asia. With support from hi5 and other social containers, we are making social networking more useful for over 100 million Internet users in Southeast Asia and to increase the global reach for local developers through the use of OpenSocial," said Patrick Chanezon, Developer Advocate, Google.

At Google DevFest, developers will get practical advice for building web applications and technical tips for working with social networking platforms such as hi5. Sessions at the event will cover:

 
--  OpenSocial: The web is better when it's social, built through a set of
    common APIs. This session shows developers how to use the latest OpenSocial
    APIs, frameworks and gadgets to open up interesting ways to interact and be
    social with people through web applications.

--  Maps & Geo: Since the introduction of the Google Maps(TM) API in 2005,
    geospatial and map applications have been one of the most interesting
    developments on the web. This session focuses on the many aspects of
    geospatial applications, from KML (a file format used to display geographic
    data) to the Google Maps API.

--  App Engine: Developers want to build and scale applications, not worry
    about system administration and maintenance. This session explains how
    developers can use Google App Engine(TM) to build web applications on top
    of Google's infrastructure.

--  Social Networking Platforms: Hundreds of millions of Internet users
    benefit from the OpenSocial platform as new features appear on their
    favorite social networks. This session shows how hi5 and other containers
    make OpenSocial applications available to their users.

More information about Google DevFest is available at: http://code.google.com/events/apacdevfest/.

About hi5 Networks

Headquartered in San Francisco, hi5 is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing social networks and mobile web networks. Our focus is to bring people closer together and allow our members to build and maintain connections between friends and family online. With over 56 million unique visitors every month, hi5 is a top 20 website globally and the number one social network in 31 countries across Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The service is available in 37 languages, delivering localized content and applications to users worldwide.

     Contact information:
     Shelley Risk
     Horn Group for hi5
     (415) 905-4037
     Email Contact