By the end of November, people ages 14-35 will be tuning in to all of their entertainment and pop culture needs through My_______; that’s MySpace for anyone who hasn’t yet seen the new logo and design of the website. As of October 27, the beta version of the new MySpace has been released for select users and is expected to be open to everyone by late November. But it will no longer be the social network it has been for the past seven years. Actually, according to CEO Mike Jones, it won’t be a social network at all.
“We want to be the leading social entertainment destination…connecting users to content that defines different entertainment tastes. We’re not a social network.”
It seems that MySpace is trying to take the best ingredients of its social media competitors to make some giant, super entertainment hub. Users can trend and follow topics like Twitter, receive badges for recognition like on FourSquare, and, of course, view Facebook-y topic “Pages.” And, not only is MySpace taking chapters out of its competitors books, it’s teaming up with them! So users can link this plethora of entertainment and pop culture to every other social media site that they already use.
The new bracket logo suggests that this site is going to be the gateway of personalized entertainment, a one-stop shop at your fingertips. Honestly, I’m not sure if this will be more convenient for me than it is to just Google news, single releases, and reviews. As of know the plan seems pretty ambiguous. Here’s the promotional video that was posted on MySpace:
Welcome to the new Myspace
Myspace | Myspace Video
MySpace has turned into such a joke since Facebook stole the spotlight that I don’t think it can redeem itself. The increasingly popular “Dear Blank Please Blank” website might have put it best:
Dear MySpace,
It’s so cute when you try.
Sincerely, Facebook
I think that at this point in the game people are comfortable with their social media sites. Even the biggest pop culture fanatic has settled in with who they want to follow on Twitter, perfected their likes on Facebook, and probably doesn’t give a hoot about FourSquare. Hell, every time Facebook changes its layout there’s an uproar expressed on statuses for at least a week. MySpace is playing catch-up but everyone else is already at the finish line.
Not that this concept of using (stealing) the best ideas from its competitors is a bad idea. But we can already link our FourSquare to our Facebook and our Facebook to our Twitter, and our Twitter to our Tumbler, and well, you get the idea. Who need ANOTHER link in the social media site chain? It may be too early to tell, but MySpace may have just hung itself with that chain.
1 comment:
It is evident that MySpace has struggled in the past, but I think you are forgetting how successful the company was just a few years ago, before Facebook became as popular as it is today. That being said, I think MySpace is taking a step in the right direction with their new idea to become an entertainment site, rather than solely focusing on social networking. I agree that Facebook has stolen the spotlight, but that does not mean that MySpace cannot somehow bounce back. With the ever-changing trends of technology, I think we would be a bit naïve to believe that Facebook will stay a powerhouse in its industry forever without many challenges. Facebook is sure to experience some powerful competition in the future, and MySpace could be the company to create that threat. In addition, if MySpace decides to work with its competition, as previously mentioned in your blog, all companies involved would surely benefit from this new entertainment hub.
Many people may agree that Facebook seems to be overpowering MySpace, but it should also be noted that MySpace is used for different purposes than Facebook and targets a different audience. One may even separate Facebook and MySpace into two completely different website categories. MySpace CEO Owen Van Nattahas seemed to end the once archrivalry between the two companies when he recently stated, “I really don’t view Facebook as a competitor,” saying that his site will focus on entertainment content (Newsweek). In fact, if one thinks back to the origin of both sites, it is apparent that the companies started out with different purposes in the first place. MySpace seemed to target mostly high school students, while Facebook was meant for college students only, and a college e-mail address was even required to log in to the social networking site (hubpages.com). Today teens and college students are on both sites, but the major difference lies in the professionals who are using the sites for headhunting. Business and computer organizations tend to use Facebook when attempting to learn about potential employees, while MySpace is used for more creative professions such as musicians, comedians and fashion designers. In fact, one of MySpace’s strong points is that it has a “more established promotional platform for musical artists” (msnbc). Although Van Nattahas doesn’t seem to want to talk about selling MySpace, it is this strength that makes the company attractive to companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, who may want to purchase it in the near future (msnbc).
http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/heated-rivalries/facebook-vs-myspace.html
http://hubpages.com/hub/MySpace-vs-Facebook
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40586969/ns/business-motley_fool/
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