Open Face...Book

Faris and Doug have written far more eloquently than me about the Facebook phenomena that is spreading through professional London (and I am sure elsewhere) as we speak. Friends who I would never in a million years have imagined that would join anything like this are signing up in droves.

There was an interesting post on TechCrunch today about about the fact that Facebook is setting itself up to be the anti MySpace. As MySpace clamps down on non-sanctioned widgets and applications (forgetting that actually one of the huge drivers of MySpace uptake was YouTube and the ability to incorporate content quicky and easily into a page), Facebook is doing the opposite and opening up its core functions to all outside developers. It is really providing unprecidented access.

I posted the question on the Facebook Plannersphere a week or so ago whether MySpace was now well and truly dead or at least about to die a death.

While I know that MySpace still provides a great platform for music sharing, I wonder does anyone really still use MySpace? And if so, why?

And finally, was it a huge waste of Murdoch's money?

Comments

[Tom Hopkins]

Facebook certainly looks set to take a major chunk of the market from MySpace. It wasn't a waste of his money though for two reasons:

1. His stated reason for buying it was that he wanted that level of knowledge of the new media inside his business.
2. He sold the search rights to google for more than he paid for the network!

[david]

I still think Myspace does very well. As for Murdoch he more than doubled his money on Myspace when Google paid him $900 million to provide advertising on the site.

[Robin Grant]

Amelia - MySpace still has almost 3x the number of UK visits than Facebook (as does Bebo) - see:
http://www.hitwise.co.uk/press-center/hitwiseHS2004/bebomyspace.php

Although Facebook is catching up fast:
http://www.brandrepublic.com/blogs/showpost/313591d7-dc04-470c-9529-abbd9eb01cd3/

and:
http://www.brandrepublic.com/blogs/showpost/339cc32a-50ba-4ccb-8ce6-6c60b8874552/

and is also doing some pretty interesting stuff:
http://www.brandrepublic.com/blogs/showpost/2a317300-5d7e-4861-ad47-19ef890b3301/

[I love Lady Bloggers!!]

I know this string is UK focused but here's a useful link that gives a bigger picture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Wikipedia lists MySpace with 176.5 million users and Facebook with 23 Million. It also has a list of the many other social networks out there. If you look at the numbers, myspace is so far ahead of the competition it's hard to imagine any short term changes. It's the Microsoft of Social Networks. Also if you look at those numbers compared to the circulation of (approx) 4 mill for the Sun you start to see Murdoch's thinking.

[Amelia]

You guys are totally right and my last question was slightly tongue in cheek. It is also good to ground assertions in data, but what is interesting to me is how long something can be "in" online. I remember way back when being addicted to Friendster, but something better always comes along. I was pretty addicted to Twitter, but now the same Twitter buddies are on Facebook and they have a similar functionality.
There was an article in the UK this week about one of the contenders for the Deputy Labour Leadership who had a Facebook account and I wondered whether that too might be a kiss of death...

[Will]

Facebook (in my opinion, given the F8 widgets) should keep growing, given the overlap - you can now stick videos/twitter from it, and more besides (most of which I'm not interested in, but a lot of people are - Jinglr for example).

Overlapping has truly begun.

[leon]

MySpace may have far more users but how active are they? I read on the wiki entry that half of FB users log on every day.

I hear all the time about MS users dumping it and signing up to FB but I've yet to hear of anybody going the other way...

[Amelia]

Doing more digging into the Facebook approach and the MySpace approach, I thought that this quote was interesting:

The platform is an extension of the Facebook API that allows third-parties to integrate applications within the profile. That is, the Facebook profile is now customizable. Among many other things, I can now add a list of adoptable dogs or cats to my profile (my favorite Facebook Platform app by far, thanks Dogster). The applications are "deeply integrated" into Facebook, meaning they have access to Facebook data. Unlike Myspace's approach, where third-party applications sit above and apart from the platform, Facebook's applications can reach into the platform and pull out data.

http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2007/05/facebook-platform-analysis.html

The point that he is making is that like Second Life, Facebook is only as useful as the applications created/provided within in. Making this open to all to create is a smart move as it means that Facebook will be in a constant state of dynamic change. So maybe, just maybe we might still all be using this in a years time.

[Chris Kruger]

My only foray into the world of social networking sites was Orkut. I quite liked it, and features and presentation wise I feel it was better than any other example I have seen so far. However it demise was quick, it became overrun with Brazilian spammers. Also my attention span for such things is pretty short. I can't help but think that these social networking sites will short lived. I'm certainly paying them little attention.

[dboy]

I wonder how many people have a myspace and facebook? And Linkedin? I don't think that online social networks are about one or the other. Check James on Ruby Pseudo:

http://rubypseudochatchat.blogspot.com/

Myspace clearly offers a bit of individual flare and expression which (currently) facebook doesn't have so much of in terms of designs/backgrounds, but actually networking on the book of face is easier. On facebook, some people decline to reveal interests and other personal info there and refer to my a myspace page for further info and postings etc (inc me)...

[RichBeaver]

I've just reviewed a book that describes STEP by STEP on how to make money using sites like CraigList, MYSpace, FaceBook , YouTube and affiliate marketing.
I invite you to read my unbiased review here:
http://richbeaver.com/reviews/newagemillions-making-a-fortune-using-the-latest-and-most-secretive-money-making-methods/