What Is Up with MySpace?
Back in early 2007, MySpace began a decline in web traffic that has continued to this day. At that point, MySpace was on top of the social networking mountain- dominating Facebook in users and unique visits, while Twitter remained hovered in base camp. However, the steady migration of users to Facebook’s more mature interface and to Twitter’s novel micro-blogathon has changed the hierarchy of social networks today. MySpace is well aware of this, and seems poised to complete a transition into new realms of media aggregation and content interaction, taking full advantage of the ground it retains against the competition.
The Numbers
In December 2008, Facebook overcame MySpace in unique visitors to the site. While MySpace had been holding steady at 60 million, Facebook had more than doubled its unique visitors in a year from 30 to 70 million. There were signs already that this would happen, and observers were not surprised. Stickiness statistics – or pages per visit – are very important to online advertisers. From January to September 2007, MySpace’s pages per visit had nearly halved[1] – a trend outlining the lack of staying power to the site. While the average visit on Facebook has remained relatively constant at around 15 minutes per visit, in two years between January 2007 – 2009, MySpace’s average time spent has gone from an astounding 30 minutes to a comparatively lackluster 10 minutes per visit- a devastating drop. In short, MySpace has struggled to keep people engaged since the emergence of Facebook and alternative social networking sites.
Why They Ran (and Still Do)
One of the many hardships that eventually befalls an extremely popular social-networking site is the mass of spam it attracts. Essentially, it was the perfect storm- millions of young adults in constant communication with each other with minimal amounts of parental oversight. Where MySpace rode on the back of the information age, it was run over by the attention age. With so many people garnering for the most amount of attention (how many friends they could have, page views, and so on), it did not take long for MySpace to lose its realism. By the time the software engineers could catch up, the damage had been done.
Another potential weakness of MySpace’s social media platform was, given the average user’s willingness to search for cheap MySpace code generators, the near- infinitely customizable profile pages that could be created. Many user pages began to be poorly designed and were inundated with so much HTML code that loading times became a nuisance. Absurdly busy backgrounds were coupled with small and often unintelligible text. Some, of course, would designate this as one of MySpace’s strengths. If there was a gain in the freedom of personalizing a web page, there was, however, a greater loss of continuity in the viewing experience–which may help explain Facebook’s ability to retain a more mature audience.
A Costly Underperformance
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp acquired MySpace for an estimated $580 million in mid-2005. Not long after, News Corp inked a $900 million advertising deal with Google in 2006, making it the exclusive search advertiser of MySpace.[2] However, shortfalls in generating sufficient traffic as set forth in the Google deal will now likely cost MySpace nearly $100 million – one of the very few stains on News Corp’s most recent revenue outlooks. Moreover, if MySpace was simply outperformed by Facebook and Twitter, which provided better social media experiences, it now seems as if they are not prepared to play catch-up any more and have quietly conceded the race. As Chase Carey, Murdoch’s second in command at News Corp bluntly put it, “We’re not trying to beat Facebook. We’re not trying to beat Twitter.”[3]
After the Google – News Corp advertising deal expires this year, Google is unlikely to come knocking on MySpace’s door. MySpace may cleverly place a search banner on its page that will trick people into doing a Google search, but click through rates have been unsatisfactory–and conversion rates abysmal. It is no wonder that \ Google has been relatively unhappy with the results. Additionally, an abundance of advertising has detracted from the user experience. So, while it is certainly possible that this partnership will continue in some capacity, it is unlikely that it will gather any momentum.
Survival
The key to MySpace’s fortune is its social networking function. However, the millions of artist pages that MySpace has accumulated over the past few years make it a complex site to navigate. A recent visitor to MySpace Music would likely notice some simplification of this space. The intention seems to be to emphasize multimedia capabilities, and play to its strengths. MySpace’s recent acquisition of iMeem and its deal with Merlin (a non-profit rights body representing many independent labels) are evidence of some retooling. Certainly, realigning the site as an entertainment destination should help curb losses in traffic and may even turn things around.
By offering videos in the future (i.e., music videos, TV, and movies) in addition to streaming music with real-time fan interaction, MySpace can position itself as a leading destination for entertainment online–a facet that is very much in the interest of its main demographic, which is lower income households with teenagers.
Conclusion
While MySpace has certainly suffered setbacks in the past few years, its deal with Google has been keeping it relatively profitable despite a shortcomings in traffic. Where it is poised to transition into a multimedia platform with a strong social networking feature, it could most certainly prosper again. MySpace remains the 5th most popular website in the United States. While Facebook and Twitter have seen huge gains, their future, like MySpac’s, cannot be taken for granted. Social networks may be here to stay. But they will surely evolve and morph into a different product. In the meantime, the media and entertainment industry will continue to supply the content that will engage users. The kind of turnaround MySpace will garner remains to be seen, and this year should be a pivotal year for social networking sites.
By Michael Benson
Sources:
“MySpace Traffic Drop Costs News Corp About $100 Million | Epicenter | Wired.com.” Wired News. 05 Nov. 2009. Web. 01 Dec. 2009. .
“Google’s Last MySpace Payment: $75 Million On June 20, 2010.” TechCrunch. 13 May 2009. Web. 01 Dec. 2009. .
Prebluda, Aaron. “Facebook vs Myspace – Tale of the Tape.” Web log post. Blog.compete.com. Compete, 26 Feb. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2009.
Shields, Rachel. “Indie labels sign download deal – News, Music – The Independent.” The Independent | News | UK and Worldwide News | Newspaper. 22 Nov. 2009. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[1] Prebluda, Aaron. “Facebook vs Myspace – Tale of the Tape.” Web log post. Blog.compete.com. Compete, 26 Feb. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2009.
[2] “Google’s Last MySpace Payment: $75 Million On June 20, 2010.” TechCrunch. 13 May 2009. Web. 01 Dec. 2009. .
[3] “MySpace Traffic Drop Costs News Corp About $100 Million | Epicenter | Wired.com.” Wired News. 05 Nov. 2009. Web. 01 Dec. 2009. .
