What Happened to MySpace’s Market Share?
Hitwise released their list of the top social networking sites for the month of September and the ranking enclosed on said list, we find very interesting.
The list covers US Web activity and shows what we’ve all been reading about – the once dominant MySpace has dropped to a share point of only 30 per cent, which is less than half of what it was September of last year.
The MySpace story is an interesting one in itself and a clear lesson to others looking to add social networking elements to their own sites, with hopes of elevating engagement and traffic. My questions around MySpace first started to surface when News Corp. purchased them for $560 million in 2005. At that point, it was unclear of what the goal of the purchase was going to be. What were the expected synergies, if any? What were their plans around the product and offering in their road map? The biggest question of all – what was News Corp going to do to recoup the moneys they had spent to acquire MySpace? To this point in time, none of the questions above have been clearly answered, especially the one surrounding revenues. The simple fact that MySpace product improvements can be classed as slim to none, when compared to other vibrant sites as Facebook, is a clear tell tale sign and an indicator to where they are now. I don’t think what we’re saying is news to News Corp, as they’ve tried, many times, to purchase Facebook and have been unsuccessful in their quest.
Most recently, MySpace did purchase a company called iLike, a site where users can get concert alerts pertaining to their favourite artists and share play-lists and recommendations with friends. Some speculate that the iLike relationship may still save MySpace, if they take this opportunity and focus on iLike’s ability to perform well in the areas of music and entertainment – the very thing that made MySpace popular in the first place.
