MySpace"s Last Attempt to Stay Alive
Ever since MySpace's demise in 2008, Facebook has continued to dominate the social networking scene while stomping out its competitors (including Google's Orkut). The drowning social network hasn't given up just yet, and called for a Hail Mary meeting to make some big changes last Thursday. One of these changes is a new slogan and a new product strategy, called "Discover and be Discovered," which has been confirmed from multiple sources. They are hoping that this will be their differentiating factor from Facebook in a desperate attempt to regain its lost users.
Exactly how bad is MySpace's situation?
The best way to describe MySpace's dire situation is to just show you. Take a look at the graph below:
As you can see, in terms of internet users, Facebook surpassed Myspace in 2008, and has continued to grow ever since. Myspace on the other hand has continued to decline slowly. A whopping 30% of internet users use Facebook while less than 5% of internet users still use Myspace.
So how is MySpace going to change?
In addition to a new slogan, the social network is planning on revamping their entire system, and offering suggested features based on user behavior. The idea is to hit users over the head with new content when they come to MySpace, like new people they should be meeting, movie trailers they should be watching, games they may want to play (perhaps against other MySpace users), music they should listen to, or articles they should read. The activity stream that MySpace recently launched will be the backbone of Discovery, but other MySpace products will feed into this as well.
MySpace is hoping that the new user experience will be enough to draw back some of its lost users who migrated to Facebook and hopefully win them back.
Personally, I think the whole thing sounds like a bad break up where the person broken up with tries to reconnect by buying some new clothes and acting like a new and improved person. I suspect that it will end the same way too.
Exactly how bad is MySpace's situation?
The best way to describe MySpace's dire situation is to just show you. Take a look at the graph below:
As you can see, in terms of internet users, Facebook surpassed Myspace in 2008, and has continued to grow ever since. Myspace on the other hand has continued to decline slowly. A whopping 30% of internet users use Facebook while less than 5% of internet users still use Myspace.
So how is MySpace going to change?
In addition to a new slogan, the social network is planning on revamping their entire system, and offering suggested features based on user behavior. The idea is to hit users over the head with new content when they come to MySpace, like new people they should be meeting, movie trailers they should be watching, games they may want to play (perhaps against other MySpace users), music they should listen to, or articles they should read. The activity stream that MySpace recently launched will be the backbone of Discovery, but other MySpace products will feed into this as well.
MySpace is hoping that the new user experience will be enough to draw back some of its lost users who migrated to Facebook and hopefully win them back.
Personally, I think the whole thing sounds like a bad break up where the person broken up with tries to reconnect by buying some new clothes and acting like a new and improved person. I suspect that it will end the same way too.
