Bebo founder Michael Birch has bought back the social networking site for $US1 million ($1.08m), just five years after it was sold for a staggering $US850 million ($921m).

Birch, 42, tweeted that he would attempt to ‘‘reinvent’’ the website, which has struggled in the face of the meteoric rise of other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

British-born Birch set up Bebo, which can be used to post blogs, photographs, music, videos and questionnaires, with his wife Xochi in 2005.

Initially Bebo - which stands for Blog Early, Blog Often - proved to be popular, especially in Europe.