Renren (NYSE:RENN) has recently sold the online video streaming service of 56.com to Sohu. One year ago Joseph Chen, Renren CEO, was rumoured to be looking to sell 56.com, the rest of its group-buy service Nuomi, and Renren.com altogether. (The remainder of Nuomi would be sold to Baidu several months later).

None of these businesses have performed well. Renren.com, the Facebook clone, never managed to expand its user base beyond college students. The social network began to see decreases in monthly unique users in the second quarter of 2013. The display advertising revenues from a limited user base were not significant.

Neither the acquired video streaming service nor the homegrown group-buy site drove significant growth in user base or top-line revenue for Renren. They were in fact cost burdens.

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