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There's an interesting piece in the Washington Post about MySpace.com. The title says it all: "In Teens' Web World, MySpace Is So Last Year."
Actually, the author does not provide tangible proof that MySpace.com is going downhill.
No doubt, the site has had a stunning ascent, with over 124 million profiles – and grabbing $900 million from Google Inc. (NASAQ: GOOG). Hey, even if MySpace self-destructs, News Corp. (NYSE: NWS.A) will still have more than covered its initial $580 million purchase price.
However, the author brings-up some good points to consider:
• The history of social networking – especially when focused on teens – is volatile. Some of the prior leaders, such as Friendster and Xanga, are a fraction of their former success.
• There's the creep factor. The author interviewed a variety of teens who are afraid of weirdos who troll MySpace.
• Then there's the authority factor. That is, teachers often go on MySpace to see what their students are doing.
• Also, if key people in a teen's network moves to another site, then many others will follow. For example, a big source of users for MySpace were former users of Friendster.
• Most importantly: Teens bore easily.
Besides, when a site like MySpace gets into mainstream media, can it really be cool any more?
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook. He operates InvestorOffering.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-01-2006 @ 12:46PM
Justin said...
Of it course it will still be popular. Kids everyday sign on to obsese over what profile picture they want. they put tons of html crap to personalize their page. its not just going to go away like the others because the others were around in a time which the broadband internet was not as pronounced as it is today. with the easy access from the internet, and only going to grow, myspace will continue to draw users as the "it" site. "everyone and their mom has a myspace"
11-16-2006 @ 2:19PM
Robert Atkinson said...
Oh I think Myspace will still be around for a long time. Teenagers like to express themselves and in that aspect, myspace has been a powerful medium. It's true that there are many creepy people out there, but you have a choice of what information you would like to share the viewers. Personally I like friendster more. They have more safety features and more user-friendly.