
MySpace up for sale - acangiano
http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/02/news-corp-myspace-sale/
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powrtoch
I will be _shocked_ if Google buys out this cesspool. Unless they need a
project to assign to engineers who've misbehaved.

~~~
saturdaysaint
I wonder if the domain and brand name would have any value to Google. As
distasteful as we view it, more non-techies that I talk to know what Myspace
is than know what Gmail or most non-search Google products (Chrome, Buzz,
Reader, possibly even Android, etc.) are. I'd find a well engineered Google
social network with a Myspace brand attached to it novel to say the least.

Not that I can see it happening.

~~~
marquis
I have to agree with you. Every musician I know still has a myspace page, and
many still use yahoo or hotmail. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea just to get
the domain name and content..

~~~
trafficlight
I actively avoid bands that use myspace as their primary website. Do they not
care about their image? They should be actively looking for new and better
places to show off their music.

~~~
elithrar
That's a lot of bands. MySpace is still popular with musicians because it's
easily templatable, it allows them to easily showcase their work (songs),
detail upcoming shows and their fan-bases are typically familiar with it
already.

Yes, MySpace is far from ideal, but is there a competing service that checks
all of these boxes?

~~~
trafficlight
<http://bandcamp.com> does an excellent job.

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jhamburger
News Corp's acquisition for $500m will probably be remembered as a collossal
blunder, but considering Facebook's current valuation, and that Myspace
_could_ have been Facebook if it were better executed, it wasn't a bad gamble
really.

~~~
dotBen
_Myspace could have been Facebook_

I disagree, and I spent a year working with MySpace in the relative hay-days
of 2007-2008.

You could write a book on why Facebook has succeeded and MySpace hasn't... but
the two headline thoughts for me are that:

1) MySpace was generational, Facebook is pan-generational. MySpace took
everything that was current and popular in the early to mid 2000's and
fashioned it into a web-based product that became part of pop culture of that
era - thus the massive connection with the bands, the celebrities, etc. That
was clever, but it was a time-limited play. Facebook appeals to multiple
generations because it doesn't have that pop-culture appeal. Facebook is a
utility, MySpace is/was a product.

2) Facebook was built as a data-play from the ground up. All of its value
leverages its data and power of the network. MySpace's data model is/was
atrocious and was never built with that in mind. Instead it was built as an
ever-changing digital based bilboard ad.

~~~
shortlived
Is there any argument to be made regarding the quality of UX/engineering at
facebook vs. myspace. I _love_ using FB and cringe everytime I need to go onto
myspace.

~~~
dotBen
Yes there is an argument (not the one you are alluding to, however) that
MySpace's UX was what attracted so many 'normal' folks to it.

Show a boring blue + white Facebook page and a crazy green-pink-orange MySpace
page to a 17 year old emo goth in Ohio and they probably will prefer the
MySpace page.

Those are the people that click on ads, those are the people that want to
friend Burger King. IE, those are the people that generate money.

~~~
jhamburger
It's still a double-edged sword though. The 17 year old loves being able to
skin their own page with a unique design, add their favorite song, etc...but
then when they view someone _elses_ unique page and have no idea where all the
buttons went and have a song they hate autoplay on page load, the UX still
sucks and drives people away.

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yakto
No matter who's steering the ship, it's going to be hard to stop this downward
momentum: <http://i.imgur.com/lD4go.png>

~~~
shasta
It looks like downward momentum on that graph has already been mostly stopped
by the x axis.

~~~
powrtoch
Too bad profits don't have that failsafe.

~~~
random42
Well, Revenue does!

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jasonoliver
They are already losing traction and engagement with their only remaining
target userbase, namely musicians and bands. If Newscorp is able to unload it,
it will likely be for a Bebo-like amount (when Aol sold it, not when they
bought it, lol).

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bitskits
Is there any value for a company (probably not a startup, since they are still
pretty expensive from that perspective) to buy MySpace as a "pick n pull" of
sorts, to repackage as a new social product? I am not a software engineer, is
this kind of thing feasible?

~~~
gscott
I would buy it just to change the terrible logo.

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rmason
These things usually start quietly. Truth is MySpace has probably been shopped
around for quite a while. They didn't find any takers so only now do they
publicly announce it in the hope that someone, anyone steps up.

    
    
      DST?? How about Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal?  He led the group that invested in Citibank and surely MySpace isn't that big a white elephant.

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armandososa
I think somebody should buy old Virb (before their last two pivots, when it
was a well designed myspace) and rebrand it as MySpace.

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jonpaul
Linkbait. It's not actually up for sale.

