

MySpace Slashes 47% of Staff - ojbyrne
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/11/myspace-slashes-47-percent-of-staff-nearly-500-employees-given-pink-slips/

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wccrawford
"Also does anyone think it’s odd that layoffs were announced in the midst of
Verizon-iPhone hoopla? Yikes."

Why would that be odd? Why would Facebook care about unrelated companies while
they are trying to remain viable?

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ladon86
This confused me as well, but I think he means that the bad news will be
buried in all the media hype/time being devoted to iPhone.

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alexqgb
Exactly.

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dotBen
I was never on staff, but I spent a year working full-time with MySpace and so
I have sadness and hope for the reduction.

I don't really know anyone who still works there but it is obviously sad when
people you worked with in the past are laid off. However, I do think the
reduction in size will help them focus - I'm guessing they will strip back
their huge international efforts (which IMHO are waste because MySpace is
really a US-orientated service) and most of the non-core products that just
add bloat.

The new incarnation of the site isn't all that bad actually, but it needs to
exist as a leaner machine of ~400 people in order to look like an attractive
acquisition and find a home away from News Corp -- the only way the site will
ultimately flourish again.

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wheels
> _I'm guessing they will strip back their huge international efforts (which
> IMHO are waste because MySpace is really a US-orientated service)_

Really? They're in the top 100 sites in 17 different countries; I mostly
encountered them while living outside the US, specifically for music stuff.

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dotBen
That is from impression as a non-american, as someone who used the service
while I worked there and from looking at usage data. Even during the peak of
MySpace it was never the #1 social network in most other countries outside of
US.

The music stuff remains niche outside the USm and I think the level of
"americana" (which FB never had) hurt MySpace in markets with an anti-american
slant (Europe, etc).

In key markets, like Asia, social networking as a vertical looks very
different which is why it didn't get the traction like local services did.

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citricsquid
FYI, sort of related although it could be fake as there's no verification:

IAMA Myspace employee about to be laid off today
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f09rk/iama_myspace_emp...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f09rk/iama_myspace_employee_about_to_be_laid_off_today/)

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robryan
Would be interested to know what type of developers work for myspace now/
before these cuts. I can see how a lot of the content/ sales jobs would be in
demand but I'd imagine quality developers would have either never worked there
because the architecture appeared to be terrible or spotted a sinking ship
from a mile away in recent years.

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billpaetzke
If you're a MySpace engineer that was laid off, hit me up:
bpaetzke@leads360.com. I'm a software engineer at a .NET startup in El
Segundo, CA that's hiring.

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m104
This is going to sound trollish, but I'll take a shot anyway: in three to five
years, you'll be able to replace "MySpace" in this article with "Facebook" and
it'll make perfect sense.

Making money is the key. MySpace wasn't able to do it with 100 million users
and Facebook won't be able to do it with a billion users. Someday, perhaps,
investors will learn that it's hard to make a killing by throwing free
parties. If you're Twitter or Tumblr any similar social site, learn from these
mistakes! By having Pro accounts, Flickr could last for decades with a decent
return rate. Twitter and Facebook, on the other hand, will burn out in a few
years if they don't find a sustainable source of revenue.

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true_religion
Doesn't facebook take a cut out of all the little apps and games that make
money through their site? And facebook has the opportunity for targeted
advertising far beyond what Groupon offers.

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electromagnetic
They also (finally) have their own micropayments system set up, which means
they're getting a cut of all the payments made through them and I'm certain
facebook will make steps to ensure they make themselves the sole payment
provider for games used on it.

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crikli
Who?

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onteria
I wonder if they used a scythe or the elegant Japanese katana.

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gcb
Heh. Until yesterday my linkedin inbox was filed with ignored offers from them

