May 18, 2007 05:32 PM
998
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 4:01 AM
Tue Mar 16
41 posts in the last 24 hours
TIM FAULKNER — Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of the advertising giant WPP, had called Google a "frenemy" in public last fall. With their recent acquisition of 24/7 Real Media, the phrase is being bandied about the blogosphere more than ever. Dave Morgan, chairman of Tacoda, an online ad network, stated, "He wants Google to view him as a frienemy, too." "Frenemies" are lurking around every corner.
Although there appears to be debate over the proper spelling ("frienemy," the more direct but confusing conjunction, or the simpler "frenemy"), there is no mistaking the meaning and utility of the now commonplace portmanteau : someone who is both friend and enemy, a relationship that is both mutually beneficial or dependent while being competitive, fraught with risk and mistrust. The exact origins are vague with one source pointing to Me One's first music album in 1999, Wikipedia suggesting it may be the New Radicals' "You Get What You Give" from the same year, and an alleged language blogger foolishly proclaiming it a recent one-time 'nonce' word that won't catch on.
In personal terms, "frenemy" is most often applied to female relationships as nearly all of them exhibit the dynamic of friendship dueling with instinctive jealousy (and because men don't care to reflect on their own relationships). It was popularized in an episode of Sex and the City, considered chiefly responsible for its expansion and popular use to describe untrustwothy, competitive female friendships. Elizabeth Spiers, a former founding editor of Gawker, was a self-described "frenemy" and has used the term frequently in her writing.
"Frenemy" has also been used in International Relationships, particularly in regard to the U.S. and its several Mid East "allies" or its trading partners. Stephen Colbert, everyone's favorite neologist, recently posed the question to New York Times editor Sheryl Wudunn, "China: Friend, Enemy, or Frenemy."
Throughout the technology industry its application is widespread: Microsoft and IBM's early relationship (which Microsoft themselves described as "riding the bear," a phrase one may overhear in San Francisco with a very different meaning), Apple and Adobe's distinct but overlapping media software and their mutually beneficial focus on creatives, prior to the buy-out the competitive tit-for-tat between Photobucket and Myspace, the early relationship between PayPal and eBay which ended with the early PayPal founders ceoming simply "enemies."
Now, like friendships among women, almost every relationship between technology companies can be characterized as "frenemies." John Paczkowski of All Things Digital recently blogged "The Frienemy of My Frienemy Is My Enemiend." This recent conversation was spurred by WPP's acquisition of 24/7 Real Media and Sir Martin Sorrell's public comments. As acquisitions continue in the advertising space and other sectors of technology, we are sure to see its continued usage. "Frenemies" once battled it out in the press and piqued our interest by acting friendly on keynote stages. Now, they are more frequently resolving the tenuous relationship by dissolving it.
Unlike most valleyspeak reviled as inane babble, "frenemy" is simply too useful, too obvious. One can only hope that its usage remains practical and does not become a means to signal or provoke M&A efforts. If only we can determine the proper spelling and use "frenemy" to kill off more awkward techno-jargon like "coopetition."
Contact information for this author is not available.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Start a new discussion