

MySpace shrinks as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo grab its users - swombat
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/29/myspace-facebook-bebo-twitter

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smokinn
Facebook bet heavily on engineering talent and it's paying off.

Myspace has had very few updates to its site and narrowly focused on the
niches it dominated. It's now paying the price as Facebook continues to grow
while Myspace stagnates.

The article said that Myspace isn't done with. While they'll probably be able
to stay profitable and (and therefore still around) for quite a while, unless
they have a complete company culture change I doubt they'll ever be able to
get back to #1 again.

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jonknee
> Facebook bet heavily on engineering talent and it's paying off.

It's paying off in spades--tons more unmonetizable foreign traffic. Facebook
is bleeding cash, MySpace is actually in the green. Facebook needs to start
making money or they simply won't be around to celebrate "beating" MySpace.

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ardit33
Yes. Long term growth and profitability, vs. quick and easy returns.

Myspace choose maximum return, and their userbase is leaving.

I bet you facebook could turn their site into %80 adds, and make lots of money
in the short term, at the prospect of loosing their customers and future
growth.

In early 2000, GM had the cash and the chance to invest on new and more
effient cars, but they decided to go all the way in SUVs. I mean, why should
have? SUVs are so much more profitable right now!?!

And look at how the foreign automakers are eating their lunch. The VOLT is
about 7 years late, (the insight and the prius were released almost a decade
ago). And Toyota/Honda are not the bankrupts ones.

Some things are simply long term business decisions. I have to bet my money on
who will still be around in 5 years from now, myspace is not the one to bet.
It is dying, and rightfully so.

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zmimon
Facebook is winning because it has hit the jackpot in finding how to convince
regular consumers to throw away their privacy in trade for connecting with
friends.

I never had a single person find me via myspace whereas dozens of people who I
had lost contact with by all other means found me on facebook. This only
happens because facebook forces me to use my real name as well as seductively
inviting me to reveal all kinds of other information and allows people to
search on it and find me and even see a picture. As much as I object to this,
it's what has entrenched facebook in my life.

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mattmaroon
I'm not so sure Myspace is unhappy about this. There's traffic, and then
there's monetizable traffic, and Myspace seems to still be cleaning up as far
as the latter goes. They've got much more convincing revenue streams.

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numair
I don't think your conviction is based on the data. MySpace is only profitable
because Google blinked. I would love to hear about these "much more convincing
revenue streams" of which you speak.

Mark Zuckerberg practically lives at the office. Chris DeWolfe spends half his
time chasing starlets. It's quite easy to imagine how that would play out over
an extended period of time, in terms of organizational focus and execution.

~~~
mattmaroon
The average user doesnt know or care what Chris or Mark spend their time
doing. They care about the experience. Though I hate the site, I still go to
Myspace when I'm at work to listen to tunes. Though I prefer Facebook, as a
personal user, Myspace is making way more off of me. (Through my business
though, my apps are generating Facebook millions of ad impressions per day.)

Also, ask any app developer where the better ecpms are. We just launched our
Myspace apps 2 days ago, but I'll try to give some exact numbers when we've
had some more time.

In the end, I think the winner in the monetization wars is going to be the one
who provides the better platform and monetizes it better. Though their
platform is maybe more painful to develop for, Myspace has a lead there.

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dotmatrix
I will have to agree with mattmaroon on this. I dont think Myspace is in for
trouble, I think every social network will see a saturation point like any
other company. Then it becomes pure optimization.

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csbartus
yepp,

i had a myspace account for years, doing dj booking & events promo. after a
few months of beeing inactive my account was suspended without any prior
notification ... just like how my lycos account went down years ago ...

