It was still a good idea for News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) to buy MySpace.com over fours years ago for a little more than half a billion. The social media network still brings in decent ad revenues, even though it is out of the popular fad culture of social media. That space is now owned by Facebook and Twitter. But then MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta says that his company is "fundamentally different" than Facebook -- as in a special experience providing entertainment content -- those words could come back to haunt him.
As will words like "I really don't view Facebook as a competitor." While it's true that Facebook and MySpace go after two types of online social interaction, they are both vying for many of the same customers in a large crossover audience. Teens, 20-somethings, and others are very fickle and many use both social networks. The two may have different goals, but they are competitors.
MySpace's focus on artists, bands, and music is a right direction. Van Natta is rebuilding MySpace from an amateur music and entertainment website to the socialization that occurs around all types of entertainment, and this is a good direction to go in. Hundreds of millions of people are fervent about are music and movies -- and that won't change any time soon. In fact, MySpace's largest competitor will be (and probably already is) MTV.
The addition of the social tools built all into the entertainment side are a great bonus -- and one that may keep some users glued a little more to MySpace than to Facebook.
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