"MySpace is like the wild, wild west or the Las Vegas of social media, dirty and ghetto."
MySpace: Falling from Grace
This quote, taken directly from "Social Network Failure: What Happened to MySpace #fail" perfectly describes MySpace's decline since it's launch in 2003. By 2006, MySpace was the largest and most popular social media site according to trends and active monthly users. Pretty quickly Facebook quickly gained attention over it's newly found younger and nerdier social networking sibling. As of August 2011, MySpace has 31 million active users, Facebook with 800 million users and Twitter sits at a cool 200 million.
So what went wrong? Where did MySpace begin to lose it's appeal to the social media consumer base and begin to be the less popular social networking site. Two major factors launched MySpace to the social media graveyard to allow other sites to grow into the spotlight.
- Spam, Advertisements, and Viruses.
- Lack of "user friendly" qualities involving MySpace.
- Spam, Advertisements, and Viruses.
- Lack of "user friendly" qualities involving MySpace.
When MySpace began to decline in 2006, a major factor was the massive amount of advertisements (albeit, inappropriate ones) that would flood your screen as soon as you logged into your page. Why would you want to visit a site multiple times a day where fifty percent of your time is spent closing out of pop-up advertisements. Then, once you closed your advertisements, many times a virus would take over your computer, causing the user to never want to visit MySpace again.
In addition to the advertisements, MySpace became so non-user friendly that only the smartest computer programmers could figure out how to change the background of their MySpace page. One of the article's below states that MySpace simply ran out of ideas. While competing with Facebook, who's ideas were innovative and constantly changing, MySpace ran out of key things that would alter the vision and ease of their site, causing more and more users to leave MySpace's site.
What's Next for MySpace?
In July 2005, MySpace was bought for $580 million by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. In June 2011, Specific Media with the partnership of Justin Timberlake bought MySpace for a measly $35 million. That's 93% loss on one social media site. So where do Timberlake and Specific Media plan to take MySpace? On October 4, MySpace (backed up by it's new owners) released a statement regarding its marketing strategy to emerge once again. MySpace wants to begin to be the "Hulu of Music."
"Specific Media’s strategy relies on Myspace’s prior licensing agreements with the four largest music labels in the world as well as over 20,000 independent music labels. Myspace will also compete against a variety of companies, like Vevo, MTV, Spotify, Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody, Grooveshark and more."
The new MySpace will feature an updated look and focus on music distribution and discovery. Only time will tell if this social media site will ever return from the internet graveyard, or if it's doomed to failure forever.
What do you think about MySpace's new endeavors? Do you think it will succeed? Will it fail? Tell us your thoughts!
Sources:
http://techland.time.com/2011/07/15/could-what-happened-to-myspace-happen-to-facebook/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/04/myspace-future-plans-music/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/04/myspace-future-plans-music/
I remember when I first made the switch from MySpace to Facebook. I remember that at first, I still preferred MySpace because I liked how the profile was more customize-able and you could pick your own fonts, backgrounds, etc. But soon I came to be okay with giving that up in return for many many better features that Facebook offered- mainly the status updates, news feed, and ease of picture uploading.
ReplyDeleteMySpace's new vision of being the Hulu of Music? Not likely, in my opinion. I honestly don't think this is something that will really take off. Maybe as a niche market for nerdy garage bands, but not something mainstream and highly profitable. I mean, just think about the reaction MySpace gets now... I can't imagine some super-cool new band that's all over MTV saying, "Oh yeah, be sure to check us out on MySpace!" That just sounds nerdy to me... Also, there are just so many competitors, as were listed and I just don't see how MySpace can be perceived as innovative when all of these new sites are coming out. MySpace just looks like the grandpa trying to be cool again. Just doesn't work.
I don't know if myspace is going to be able to pull it off because the reason so many people left was due to the annoying music features that you couldn't turn off or the mass advertisements that would flood your wall. So it pretty much left a bad taste in most users mouths to begin with. I also think it may fail due to the fact that many people do not need to hear music through myspace because many other sites like youtube.com or hotnewhiphop.com provide many music choices to your liking and they have been around longer.
ReplyDeleteThe only way I feel they can actually make it is if they find a way to incorporate it with Facebook, Tweeter, or Google+ because many people live on those sites anyway. Becoming an edition to those may help myspace out beat other websites that demonstrate music.
I was definately a fan of myspace as a kid. I liked it more than facebook. It was definately harder with having to figure out hmtl code stuff, but I felt as though you were better able to personalize your profile.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Myspace will be able to overcome its reputation as the kind of social network it was to become a hulu of music. It's too strongly aknowledged as the "old facebook" to become what it aspires to be. Unless of course, it changes its name.
-Steeplechaser
What do you get when you put myspace and facebook together? MyFace. What do you get when you put myspace, twitter, facebook together? MyTwitFace.
ReplyDeleteI think mostly all of us had myspace. Now it's just myoldspace. Tom did a great job, but it just got old and a new invention broke through. I too don't think myspace will ever make a comeback. I think it's just one of those thing that will never be used again.
Myspace don't feel bad Facebook is next. Twitter and skype are the new social network and podcaster of the near future. Myspace and Tom had a great run, but with technology enhancing every second(like now) MY(slow)Pace will always be a step behind, but Tom is still a millionaire.
ReplyDelete