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Archived Report:
Company Brief
MySpace
Copyright 2014, Faulkner Information Services. All Rights Reserved.
Docid: 00021985
Publication Date: 1401
Report Type: VENDOR
Preview
Once the king of all social networking sites, MySpace has since fallen from
that perch and struggled to find its identity. The current iteration of MySpace
takes the form of a social media discovery engine, combining aspects of its
former social networking heritage with a strong library of streaming music and
video content.
Report Contents:
Fast Facts
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Name: MySpace
Headquarters
8391 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone: (310) 388-0892
Web: http://www.myspace.com
Type of Vendor: Social Networking Site
Founded: 2003
Service Areas: Global
Stock Symbol: MySpace.com is a subsidiary of Specific Media, and is
not publicly listed.
| Related Faulkner Reports |
| Facebook Company Brief |
History
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Although MySpace’s corporate history is somewhat controversial, it is known that
the
company was founded by Chris DeWolfe and Brad Greenspan. The two men, who were
working for email provider eUniverse at the time, realized that they could
leverage the company’s database of users to launch a Web site based on the
features of the established social networking site Friendster. 1
It was not until after the launch of MySpace in 2003, and the departure of
Brad Greenspan, that the site’s public face, Tom Andersen, came into the
picture. Andersen, a long time associate of Chris DeWolfe, was chosen as an age
appropriate exemplar for the site’s intended demographic. The company then
decided to promote the fictional idea that Tom Andersen himself had founded
MySpace as a "garage" startup company.
Figure 1. MySpace Social
Networking Home Page
Source: MySpace
Thanks to the ready-made customer base provided by eUniverse and free profiles, the site’s user base grew exponentially. MySpace quickly became a destination for individuals looking for the connections a social networking site can provide,
businesses taking advantage of the free promotional opportunities, and
entertainment acts looking to connect with a fan base.
The Web site’s early success culminated in the 2005 purchase of MySpace by News Corp. for $580 million. At the time of purchase, MySpace
was the undisputed global leader for social networking sites and the 5th most
visited Web site within the US. 2
MySpace continued to grow following its News Corp. acquisition. The
site added to its initial services with several additional media offerings which allowed garage bands and established stars alike to
upload streaming music and videos to promote themselves. This move would come to be
extremely important later when MySpace leveraged these assets to relaunch as a media discovery destination.
Figure 2. MySpace
Videos
Page
Source: MySpace
By 2009, MySpace had fallen off its perch as leader of the social
networks. It retained a little more than 19% of the market share, while
Facebook accounted for about 45% of social network visits.3 In
response to this, MySpace announced plans to relaunch itself as a "social
entertainment" site. Specifically, the network’s new goal would be to
provide users with methods of discovering new entertainment media. Whether by
looking at the favorite artists of their friends or the most popular movies
among all users, the new MySpace would be, first and foremost, a place for
users to connect with media, while connecting to other users would
remain as a close
second.
Figure 3. MySpace Social
Entertainment Page
Source: MySpace
Despite the seemingly difficult road ahead, there were still
interested buyers when News Corp. officially put MySpace on the market in 2011, albeit at
a substantially discounted price. When the bidding was finished Specific Media
walked away with the aging social network. Interestingly, ownership of MySpace
after the acquisition passed to entertainment personality Justin Timberlake.
Although the singer/actor had essentially no business experience, it should be
remembered that MySpace is now for all intents and purposes an entertainment
company, making it, perhaps, a wise decision to place an entertainer at its
helm.
Since it’s rebirth and transfer of
ownership, MySpace has continued to seek out entertainment partnerships, having
launched a music promotion with Chevrolet and teaming with Jimmy Kimmel to livestream video content. Although MySpace has also attempted to keep up with modern
trends by releasing a mobile-specific platform and apps for various mobile
operating systems, the company remains a relatively small player in the social
networking and online media discovery arenas.
Key Executives
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CEO: Tim Vanderhook
COO: Chris Vanderhook
Co-Founder and COO: Josh Berman
Co-Owner: Justin Timberlake
CTO: Fabrizio Blanco
CFO: Mark Rosenbaum
Chief Privacy Officer (CPO): Jennifer Mardosz
Major Products
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MySpace’s business model still focuses on using social
media discovery and media consumption to drive online ad exposures. The site
includes ads provided by multiple advertising networks, including Google’s
AdSense, AdChoice, and others. In order to bring in users for the purpose of
increasing ad value, MySpace currently offers a huge selection of music and
videos.
The site’s music catalog of more
than 53 million tracks includes full songs from many of the current top 40
artists in a wide variety of genres. MySpace also retains its tradition of
exposing little-known or unsigned acts to the world, with a high prevalence of
up-and-coming and obscure artists. In addition to its library of music files,
MySpace also offers a catalog of thousands of music videos as
well as news pieces, interviews with artists, movie trailers, and other
entertainment content. All of the site’s offerings are organized by their
popularity, and all can be easily shared with other MySpace users or posted to
Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks thanks to MySpace’s sharing capabilities.
MySpace also maintains a small presence outside of the
traditional World Wide Web, with its MySpace TV app. The app first appeared on a
recent lineup of Panasonic Internet-connected televisions, and includes access
to MySpace’s library of music and videos as well as a social networking aspect
which lets users chat, rate the current show they are watching, and share their
views on any television programming with other MySpace users.4
Lastly, MySpace does still offer somewhat of a traditional
social networking experience. Users are still able to create and maintain a
profile page where their interests and activities are displayed. However, even this
aspect of the site primarily serves as a vehicle to drive increased media
discovery and consumption, subsequently increasing ad exposures.
Major Competitors
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Although MySpace has primarily
moved away from its social networking roots, the company must still combat the
constant draw of similar media discovery capabilities available on both
traditional social networks such as Facebook, as well as the media consumption
and discovery offered by various mobile and Web-based applications such as
Pandora or Spotify.
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
- Bebo: http://www.bebo.com/
- MyYearbook: http://www.myyearbook.com/
- YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/
- Pandora: http://www.pandora.com/
- Spotify: http://www.spotify.com
Recent Activity
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In January 2012, MySpace announced its partnership with Panasonic
to launch MySpace TV on an upcoming lineup of Internet-connected
televisions. The app allows for media streaming, as well as dialogue with
other MySpace users about whatever the viewer is currently watching or has
recently watched.
In February of 2012, MySpace named Roger Mincheff as the new President of
MySpace Entertainment. Mincheff joined the company from Fox Filmed
Entertainment, where he served as Senior Vice President of Branded
Entertainment.
In May of 2012 MySpace settled a charge from the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) that it misled millions of users about how it planned to share
their information with advertisers. Although the precise details of the
settlement were not disclosed, the site did note that it has agreed to implement
a "comprehensive privacy program" as part of the agreement.
As of January, 2013, the site had risen to fifth among all social networks, up
from eighth in the previous year. Although this still does not
bring the site back to even its 2011 slot as the third most popular social
networking site, it does actually place it one spot ahead of Google+, a site
which was at least considered as a serious competitor to Facebook.5
In June 2013, MySpace launched a revamped platform with
a unified aesthetic for its desktop and mobile Web sites and apps.
As of January 2014, MySpace’s
star appears to once again be falling. Since the last update, it has dropped to
11th among all social networks, while Google+ has risen to fourth place.6
References
- 1"MySpace: The Business of Spam 2.0 (Exhaustive Edition)." Valleywag.
September 2006. - 2 "New
Corp in $580m Internet Buy." BBC
News. July 2005. - 3 "Top 20 Social Networking Websites: for the week ending
September 26, 2009." Experian Hitwise.
December 2009. - 4 "Justin
Timberlake Debuts Myspace TV." RollingStone.
January 2012. - 5 "Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites | January 2013."
EbizMBA. January 2013 - 6 "Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites | January 2014."
EbizMBA. January 2014
About the Author
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Michael Gariffo is an editor for Faulkner
Information Services. He tracks and writes about enterprise software
and the IT services sector, as well as telecommunications and data networking.
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