i mostly agree with the above actually (hey, amazing), and i think that MySpace is eminently viable whether or not they figure out a few new tricks to keep up with Facebook Platform & Feed.

iworked briefly with MySpace while i was at Simply Hired (News Corp is an investor in Simply Hired, as am i from an earlier round), i’m pretty clear on the fact they have a solid business. it may be under some amount of threat from FB & Bebo & others, but all market upheaval aside, MySpace will be a large player in the space for quite some time.

but MySpace doesn’t have some key features & advantages FB has:
* FB Platform is dramatically better as a foundation for other 3rd-party app developers, and altho MySpace has a gazillion widgets, they currently don’t have as much to offer as the Facebook API.
* MySpace doesn’t really have any direct equivalent to the News Feed. they’re smart enough to build a similar technology; however at the moment they got bupkus.
* FB user demographic appears to be better-educated and stickier… both items help increase the relative valuation to MS. and they smell better too
* lastly, biggest issue to overcome imho is simply one of perception: will MySpace keep stepping all over its users (ala Photobucket), or will it start to offer a more friendly environment, knowing that it’s still closely gusarded.

in summary:
1) MySpace is huge, and continues to attract audience
2) they’ll probably end up copying / building something similar to FB Platform & Feed
3) regardless, MySpace is going to be a relevant website for a long time. get used to them.

- dmc

Keep up the good work.