Remember Friendster? The social pioneer may have faded in the U.S., but it still boasts 50 million users, mostly in Asian countries.

Friendster clearly still keeps its eye on prominent U.S. networks, however, after announcing that it will follow Facebook's lead and open up the platform to developers.

The developers will also be able to run ads without having to share revenue with Friendster.

With all three major networks now opening their back-ends, TechCrunch is making a point that developer platforms are becoming a commodity.

Myspace announced plans less than a week ago to open its platform, with Facebook starting the trend five months ago.