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MySpace up for sale

venturebeat.com

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Re: MySpace up for sale

#4
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).

Re: MySpace up for sale

#6
post #3

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

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

Re: MySpace up for sale

#7
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.

Re: MySpace up for sale

#9

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.

The problem is treating these things as gambles. When you look at Facebook, their success is a result of understanding their product and its potential pretty damn well, then working extremely hard to bridge the gap between the two.

If you're going to plunk down $500m on a company, you should have a very clear idea of what you want to do with it and how you're going to grow it. MySpace was bought by a big ass dinosaur who thought "being successful on the internet" was as simple as writing a check – or buying a sack of magical beans.

Re: MySpace up for sale

#10

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.

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.

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