The MySpace Method: Will It Apply to Facebook and Google?
July 11, 2011
The trials and tribulations of giant corporations are almost amusing as the antics of cash strapped non profit organizations. Here in good old Kentucky, the local orchestra is like a feature in Mad Magazine. The audience is not going anywhere except the rest home with a disco ball. I will be there soon, and it is easier to site in my mossy nook and gaze at the wonders of Insight cable TV.
I did enjoy the write up “The Rise and Inglorious Fall of Myspace.” Not only did the Media Mogul, Rupert Murdoch, pay a half billion for an online social property, he sold it for $35 million. Yep, that online sector is a piece of cake. Here’s the passage I enjoyed:
Mismanagement, a flawed merger, and countless strategic blunders have accelerated Myspace’s fall from being one of the most popular websites on earth—one that promised to redefine music, politics, dating, and pop culture—to an afterthought. But Myspace’s fate may not be an anomaly. It turns out that fast-moving technology, fickle user behavior, and swirling public perception are an extremely volatile mix. Add in the sense of arrogance that comes when hundreds of millions of people around the world are living on your platform, and social networks appear to be a very peculiar business—one in which companies might serially rise, fall, and disappear.
The article provides a reasonably good analysis of the “externalities”, the tough world of digital stuff, and the task of keeping the attention deficit, entitlement crowd engaged.
Two factors were not given sufficient emphasis. Let me comment on these.
First, the trajectory of MySpace is similar to what has happened to Lycos and is happening to AOL and Yahoo. The point is that social networks, like search, are likely to live fast and die young. F Scott would drink to that. I just will point out that multiple revenue streams, constant reinvention, and all thumbs management cannot “save” an online property that loses its magnetism.
Second, failure today creeps up. Look at how much effort and money Mr. Murdoch pumped into the outfit. Start with a half a billion dollars. Look at what happened. As money goes in, cash cannot turn on the magnetism. Even when losing a million users per month, MySpace kept the lights on. I suppose hope springs eternal in the human breast, but when traffic heads south, getting traffic back is getting harder. Let’s hear it for the all thumbs approach to monitoring MySpace’s vital signs.
Bottom line: Today’s high magnetism sites may be losing power as the party goes on. The MySpace Method.
Stephen E Arnold, July 11, 2011
Sponsored by Rolling Research, the source for automotive technology information.
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