As online social networks get more congested, and competitive, Friendster has brought on board a key Google executive in a firm show of commitment to the Asia Pacific region. Meet their new Chief Executive Officer, Australian Richard Kimber, who was formerly Google’s regional managing director for South Asia.

According to VentureBeat, Friendster announced that they bagged US$20 million in a funding round led by IDG Ventures, with existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and Founders Fund participating. With this new cash infusion, Friendster has raised $45 million to date. Previous investors include Battery Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and DAG Ventures.

The funds will be primarily used to strengthen and extend its leadership position in Asia, where Friendster is ranked as the top social network with over 55 million registered users and 33 million monthly ‘unique visitors’ from the region, based on June 2008 findings from comScore Media Matrix. Friendster intends to recruit more engineers, sales and marketing staff and 80% of new hires will come from Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

Preliminary July figures indicate that Friendster had 57 million unique visitors in Asia and counting, with 20 million coming from the Philippines alone. The company is looking into more options to increase revenue by developing income streams through advertising, virtual goods and online gaming. Australia, Japan, South Korea and Singapore were highlighted as the most developed online advertising markets in the region.

In recent months, Friendster has been aggressively courting Asian users through language customization and extending mobile services available to reach more of its 75 million members worldwide, 80% of whom are from East Asia.