The MySpace overhaul begins.
While MySpace was once a leader in social networking, in recent times it has trailed behind Facebook and been overshadowed by the rise of Twitter. As BuddeComm foreshadowed a couple of years ago, the popularity of sites such as these are prone to go out of favour. While the popularity of social media will continue to grow – the actual services consumers use will change and evolve. In 2002 a social networking site called Xanga was very popular and in 2007, Friendster (still in existence) was a leader of the pack.
According to Nielsen Online, back in 2002 users spent 1 hour and 39 minutes on Xanga, but by mid-2006, this had declined to less than 15 minutes. Friendster was once recording a usage peak of 3 hours and 3 minutes in early 2007, however this had dropped to less than 20 minutes by the end of that year. In contrast, according to ComScore, by December 2007, the average US user spent nearly 3 hours on popular site, Facebook and this continues to grow with users spending 3 hours and 10 minutes in March 2009.
It is now MySpace’s turn to falter, and its owners, News Corp, are attempting to revitalise it, beginning with a change of management. MySpace founders, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, will be re-appointed within the company and former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta will reportedly replace DeWolfe as CEO.
News Corp has also appointed former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller to lead the company’s digital media division.
While MySpace still remains a popular site, it has become apparent that Facebook has become the leader and is growing more quickly.
Table 1 – Unique monthly users – Facebook vs MySpace – March 2008; March 2009
|
Web property |
March 2008 Unique monthly users (million) |
March 2009 Unique monthly users (million) |
|
Fox Interactive Media Sites (including MySpace) |
88 |
85 |
|
|
36 |
61 |
(Source: BuddeComm based on Comscore, 2009)
For further information see separate reports:
Digital Media – Social Networks & UGC;
Digital Media – Internet Media Companies.
Tagged in: Global
