MySpace is American social networking site which has a quite a long history. It was launched in 2003 under the patronage of internet marketing company eUniverse (today's Intermix Media). Firstly it was virtual storage page and after some years it became social networking site. In 2005 MySpace was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and after that, some design changes, separate subsites (like MySpace for UK or China version of MySpace) and launch of Facebook made MySpace no more page for music and networking but it has become advertising paradise and Facebook's-wanna-be-twin. Why for advertisers? "Through its Web site and affiliated ad networks, MySpace is second only to Yahoo! in its capacity to collect data about its users and thus in its ability to use behavioral targeting to select the ads each visitor sees." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace)
Well internet is constantly changing but why did MySpace become so old and unpopular? Some years ago MySpace was a place to be, all the celebrities and music artist were on MySpace, but today majority of them went to Twitter or Facebook. But are Twitter and Facebook phenomenon the main reasons for the decline of MySpace? (for comparison of numbers of unique visitors check this very useful site for all of you who are interested in social networking sites -> http://siteanalytics.compete.com/myspace.com+facebook.com+twitter.com/)
Some possible MySpace flaws can be:
- complicated use of all the aplications and features of site (the KISS rule - Keep It Simple Stupid), it wants to be too much like Facebook,
- it does not have any third party program helpers, like Twitter or Facebook have (like applications or companies fan pages),
- it is also more imaginary and people are less willingly to share their real identity on MySpace than on the Facebook,
- poor spam and junk protection, too much advertisements,
- not so clean-looking design like Facebook,
- it has no option for non-stop communicating like chating,
- celebrities moved to Twitter, independent bands stayed on MySpace (privacy rights).
And this are just some of potential causes. Do you agree with them or do you think that it is not all about the technical changes but the reality that primar MySpace users got old. And do you think that Facebook could have the same destiny?
And when I was searching for information about MySpace I found this very useful Wikipedia site of all of social networking sites. Useful and interesting :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
Well internet is constantly changing but why did MySpace become so old and unpopular? Some years ago MySpace was a place to be, all the celebrities and music artist were on MySpace, but today majority of them went to Twitter or Facebook. But are Twitter and Facebook phenomenon the main reasons for the decline of MySpace? (for comparison of numbers of unique visitors check this very useful site for all of you who are interested in social networking sites -> http://siteanalytics.compete.com/myspace.com+facebook.com+twitter.com/)
Some possible MySpace flaws can be:
- complicated use of all the aplications and features of site (the KISS rule - Keep It Simple Stupid), it wants to be too much like Facebook,
- it does not have any third party program helpers, like Twitter or Facebook have (like applications or companies fan pages),
- it is also more imaginary and people are less willingly to share their real identity on MySpace than on the Facebook,
- poor spam and junk protection, too much advertisements,
- not so clean-looking design like Facebook,
- it has no option for non-stop communicating like chating,
- celebrities moved to Twitter, independent bands stayed on MySpace (privacy rights).
And this are just some of potential causes. Do you agree with them or do you think that it is not all about the technical changes but the reality that primar MySpace users got old. And do you think that Facebook could have the same destiny?
And when I was searching for information about MySpace I found this very useful Wikipedia site of all of social networking sites. Useful and interesting :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
I personally believe that MySpace faced the same problem so many networking, chatting or whatever social sites have in the past: saturation. Studying the history of any of these you will find that they were primarily insulated sites for particular groups of people, usually computer geeks and techno-lovers. And as the sites/service became more open to newcomers and therefore more and more populated, the "original" users abandoned it in search of the next best thing. Remember IRC and similar chat rooms? I read a lot about ex-users mourning "the good old days of the anonymous IRC". These groups want those sites to be kept under popularization control; they want it for themselves and others like them - not for everyone.
ReplyDeleteIt has happened to MySpace, it has already started happening to Facebook and it will happen and there are rumors among Twitter users that the original twitterers are already abandoning it because of saturation.
This saturation is of course also marked by target advertizing and spamming and that is another reason for users who fell in love with the service for “what it used to be” to leave it completely.
Site popularity is also run by trends. IRC was the best thing in the late 90s/early 2000, then MySpace was the next best thing, now Facebook, tomorrow maybe Twitter. Some sites never gained any serious popularity, for example Tagged and Hi5. If all your friends are on Facebook then you have no business being on MySpace as it is almost as not having a Facebook account – you are excluded, you are missing on “hanging out”.
Of course each service has still got its
advantages and MySpace is still being used for band promotion and music, because it allows file uploading and interface manipulation. Unless Facebook comes up with something similar bands are still going to use it, because they want their page to be visually attractive and personalized. Bands usually upload their entire albums prior to the official release and there is even a thing called MySpace Records, which uses the platform to promote band like the Japanese new wave punks Polysics(http://www.myspace.com/polysics)
I agree with Jernej at some point. All social network sites are not made for the same groups of people. Myspace is used by a large number of people who share common interest - music. Facebook seems to be more commercialized. On FB we can find all age groups, different groups with different interests...but still, there is a divide in pages on FB where people with the same minds come together. So, Myspace was popular when it came out on the open, but for some users is still. Maybe that is the way it should be.
ReplyDelete