Venture capitalist Josh Kopelman rips into MySpace today as he applauds Facebook’s new developer platform.
Facebook’s timing is perfect. They just released an API that gives third party developers deep access to Facebook functionality and its 20 million users. Not only can these third party startups get a widget placed on people’s Facebook profiles, but they can also get viral distribution through users’ news feeds and access core Facebook features. Using the tools that Facebook made available, developers could build new versions of some of Facebook’s own applications, like Facebook Photos. Users can then remove those default applications and add the new ones. Like Microsoft with Windows, Facebook is now competing with application developers on its own platform.
This isn’t all just talk, either. The most popular third party application, iLike, has nearly 400,000 users just a couple of days after launching and 10x what they had just last Friday. That means nearly 5% of Facebook’s users have now included it on their profile.
Kopelman’s post looks at the new reality from the perspective of a startup. MySpace is a minefield – startups want access to their users but suffer from the very real possibility of being banned, either temporarily or permanently.
Facebook is viewing things from exactly the opposite position: they are giving startups access to Facebook’s core feature set, and allowing them to show advertising and conduct transactions with users without even asking for a cut. This is exactly why I called Facebook the Anti-MySpace last week. Kopelman goes on to say:
Think about it. If you ran a venture-backed company and had to decide whether you wanted to focus your effort on: (a) a property that welcomed you in and let you keep 100% of the revenue you generate or (b) a company with a vague policy that doesn’t let you generate any revenue, which would you choose? I don’t think it’s even a decision. It’s an IQ test.
Kopelman estimates that $250 million has been invested in widget companies in the last 18 months. When these startups think about where to spend their resources, they’ll be weighing MySpace’s relative size advantage (MySpace has 100 million users, growing by 300,000 or so per day. Facebook has 20 million users, growing by 100,000 per day) to the open and transparent nature of Facebook’s approach. On balance I agree with Kopelman. Startups can build a very large business on the back of Facebook. The MySpace path is much riskier.
smart guy. smart product. facebook is the only SNS I use regularly (and, like many commenters on techcrunch, I’m a member of god knows how many).
From a stratup point of view, it is a very risky strategy to be 100% dependent on one client. Say, the starup is successful, then Facebook can always bring down its value by banning it for any reason.
Facebook doesn’t require a cell phone to register and this is a huge problem. I’ve started receiving random messages from ’sexy girls’ advertising their sex sites…The group i host, the wall has been flooded with so many links to sex sites and all these guys have to do, is register and join a network.
I guess facebook is just another chapter that might soon pass once this spam traffic increases like myspace
Just because you don’t need a cell phone to register to Facebook doesn;t meant hat’s a problem. There very well may be plenty of people who want to join a site but can’t because they don’t have a friggin’ phone. Plus, MySpace is dangerous! My daughter got stalked on there and we ended up having to call the police! FaceBook is a safe and private site. And free, so you don’t get SPAM on your phone that you have to PAY for when you recieve the text messages!
I hate myspace. I can’t wait until the massive user shift from myspace to facebook happens.
shut up haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
You can’t be serious, Drew. People still like MySpace, although some still like Facebook. Some are moving from MySpace to Facebook but I wouldn’t call it a “massive shift”. Everybody won’t just forget about MySpace.
Hey Mike,
People can sign up to Facebook now with non-university email addresses (and without a cell phone).
Richard
Facebook is making some bold and very commendable moves with their new platform. The question is what is MySpace working on to counter? Either way both sites need to include small business as well, not just multi nationals and companies that have the ability to program an API.
Both sides could benefit from making a very clear policy on “social network marketing” from its members. Create a business account, charge $50-100 per month for the service. Ban all other types of advertising and even outbound links if necessary. This would help eliminate a majority of the spam, few would pay any amount to hawk their goods.
waiting for the next facebook or myspace
myface
mybook
facespace
spaceface
bookspace
spacebook
Which one??
very funny, u thought about it.
all names match in any way.
Facebook really has found the golden ticket. They built their community from the ground up as the most walled of all walled gardens. As a result, for the most part, their user base lacks the preponderance of spammers that you see gracing the halls of MySpace.
Not that they have allowed 3rd parties to access their data, there is almost no reason to still use MySpace. The only reason that people may still do so is their committement to their current profiles.
I think MySpace is a poor SNS and I never understood why people used to go gaga over it. I havent even signed up on MySpace – they have a reputation to spam outrageously! FaceBook is a really great.
The Facebook approach makes perfect sense: instead of worrying about controlling the eco system, they figure they stand more to gain by growing the eco system and becoming a “Keystone” within it..
It seems that Facebook’s agenda is totally opposite to MySpace’s and I think that this is a really good and bold move.
Who knows!? Maybe we will see MySpace taking the same road in the near future if this works out for Facebook, and I think they will!
I strongly suggest the management team of Myspace and Facebook read this article, including all comments.
Perhaps they can learn how to meet users’ need and keep them loyal. they should think about their future business model, such as by social network marketing.
Have you actually tried to add more than one widget to your facebook profile? You quickly figure out that space is extremely limited. Sorry, but MySpace is still the way to go.
MySpace the way to go? That’s quite a bold statement considering the nature of the two sites.
There is no question that Facebook is the better overall site in so many respects. The only thing MySpace has over Facebook is popularity because of Facebook’s previous closed nature.
But one honest flaw of Facebook that MySpace is good at is the URLs of profiles. In MySpace they are simple, easy to remember, and thus it facilitates URL sharing and site promotion.
Ask any Facebook user what their user ID is and I’m sure you’ll get a “a user what??” type of answer. And aside from that the profile URL itself isn’t easy to remember.
Having used both, in my opinion the main thing Facebook has over myspace is the user interface; although it uses the same square box look, the colour scheme is softer, and the content has been styled better than on myspace.
Have you ever looked at the html code behind myspace? Tables! OMG, Tables! It’s like a web 1.0 throwback!
Information is the key asset of both social networks, and the better they get at being able to mine that data, the more money they can make. Good on Facebook for making that api!
Don – I’ve added a bunch of apps to facebook and it handles them no problem. Your comment seems a lot off.
ok, now just wait and see if this really is the right way to go and what the direct and indirect business benefits are of this move. My guess is that this will hurt the ajax homepages more than MySpace.
This is definitely the right way to go for facebook, especially since they haven’t even begun to do different domains. I think that we can look forward to the day in which facebook has an open and public face and many of the facebook apps will live off of the main domain name. There is absolutely no reason they should stop short of becoming the web’s new and evolved white pages for the whole world.
MySpace, in my view, will in time lose relevance as more and more companies attempt to use it for marketing purposes. On my own account I now get 10 requests a day from people not at all connected to me. This forces people to take their networks more private, which will serve the site well in some ways, but also greatly limits growth as new users will be increasingly shut out.
It will be interesting to see if facebook ever tries to court the bands/comedians in the same way MySpace has. I hope not, at least.
Myspace is getting messy now days, but facebook will follow myspace’s steps as well since they just opened their API. (just waiting for more spammers come)
Video Converter
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“It’s like a web 1.0 throwback!”
Allow me to rephrase that…it’s like a dotcom throwback (how retrospective). Any idea how much money myspace made last year?
What a great quote (because it’s the truth). Facebook has launched itself way ahead of Myspace with this platform. Bravo.
This is a great move towards better personal content management on the distributed desktop. I believe the next thing after social networks is going to be internet applications networks.
Does anyone know how it looks legally?
I find the facebook open platform awesome and it makes it even easier to start a new service online.
BUT:
I mean if you build your application just on top of facebook, it has some risks that should not be neglected:
What if facebook starts charging for being able to user their API?
What if they just shut down the API?
Does someone know if you can buy a guaranteed access to api and platform?
Ok, enough hype…I know that giving application developers a solid api is what is supposed to have catapulted microsoft past it’s competition, but allow me to ask one question: What applications exactly are going to send facebook to the next level? I mean, the iLike app is very nice but I don’t think someone is going to switch from myspace or start using social networking just to get music recomendations based on what their friends like.
Personally, I just think that despite APIs and potential apps, facebook is about photos and comments for college kids. I’m sure that companies will create a lot of very cool and compelling apps, but I don’t think any of them will convince someone who uses another service or doesn’t use any social networking at all to become facebook users. And if the new applications can’t do that, then how is this anything other than a solid improvement for their existing users?
I have an account in Facebook, not anymore in MySpace due to it’s invite everyone approach, but now I’m afraid it will happen to Facebook, one person many accounts, just for the fun of it.
I hope Myspace is listening and rips a page or two out of the new Facebook playbook …
It doesn’t really surprise me, because my impression is that Facebook is run by tech industry people, MySpace is owned/run by a media industry person. I’m sure that has to play some part in what each decides to do, even with a ton of technical people helping on the MySpace end.
Wow, this is all new to me !
@Drew Meyers :
“I hate myspace. I can’t wait until the massive user shift from myspace to facebook happens.”
Spoken like a true follower. They are pretty much the same freaking thing. Facebook will have the same spam issue Myspace has IF it becomes as popular. Pull your head out of your ass and take a deep breath. It may help your thinking a little.
eh, MySpace sucks. Facebook’s alright. Cavenger (http://www.cavenger.com) is better than both – in my opinion.
I can not believe that people would even compare myspace and facebook.
Facebook gets all the credit just not allowing people to edit how their pages look. Ok, honestly, that is a good option, but in a world where everyone knows how to design.
But obviously, the “amazing” templates that people use in myspace which usually don’t even support firefox messes up every single profile. I’ve seen profiles where I have to select all just to be able to read what’s writing.
There is a huge quality gap between myspace and facebook. And with the addition of the platform, that gap has become even more.
Oh and myspace with all the spam! I’m wondering when people will be tired of adding fake girls with their cleavage as profile pics.
virb.com
works for me
Not that it’s all that big of a deal, but I just wanted to point out that 400000 isn’t close to 5% of the 20 million users on facebook at all. its 2%. With a difference like that, one could argue that “facebook almost has as many people as myspace.” in which case the argument as to whether as a startup you would choose myspace or facebook would definitely be moot.
Both have their pros and cons.
Myspace is a lot less safe than facebook is, obviously. And there’s way too much spam. But it’s also more customizable than facebook….
Facebook is safe as long as you’re ok with your friends stalking you.
The interesting point of this debate is not about the value of the facebook API but about the fact how much myspace is hated nowadays. There are very few among my friends who’re still using myspace and even less who really like it. The question is – is myspace going down? This might be a very bold statement regarding the fact that myspace “grows” so much every day. But I can’t imagine how this is still a “healthy” community.
Just in case there is something true about the myspace is dying impression – what will be the impact on the web 2.0 bizz (and on facebook). I’m pretty sure that many people still underestimate the dynamics of the web…
Maybe we’re using two different sites, because my profile gets extremely crowded and hard to view because one column is short (left side) and the other becomes two-three times longer.
I didn’t mean MySpace is the way to go for everything, but I mean it’s still my preference for these little “widgets”. Facebook’s design isn’t made for these widgets, in my honest opinion. I wish there was a way to disable seeing these applications so I could get my facebook back.
And on the mention of spam, I’m already getting random friend invites that clearly look like spam bots (on facebook). Obviously not nearly as bad as MySpace (which can be fixed extremely easily)
Every time I see a discussion on Facebook vs Myspace there are always comments on how great Virb.com is. I would be curious to see a comparison of the second tier networks and their specific approaches.
I like how they have opened up the api. Its a little ironic that facebook grew at a modest rate due to their closed approach, now they are more open than myspace.Hopefully this will spur innovation and improvement in the field as much needs to be improved.
So how bout a myspace thingy for my facebook–so that I don’t have to log into myspace ever again?
Single-sign-on facebook app would be hilarious.
Don, you can actually drag many of the widgets into the smaller left-hand column, including iLike, the Compass, Causes, and likely many others. This can be a major help in evening out the columns.
What is with the register page? It’s like one of those hacker site trying to scam your e-mail password. They ask for your e-mail address, then a password. Most new users would be stupid enough to put their e-mail password in there. Why does Facebook not have a warning for that? Seems fishy to me. Anyone read the Terms of agreement? They pretty much own your ass when you agree to it.
I’ve had nothing but loads of spam from Facebook, much more than Myspace. Facebook has my name however, seriously compromising my identity. I sincerely wish I’d never gotten a Facebook account, nor a Myspace account for that matter. Either way, Facespace and Mybook are privacy destroying spam traps.
VIRB is better than both of em
MySpace’s rep among the digerati today == AOL’s rep among the digerati yesterday, today, and most likely forever. Bring on the Facebook goodness.
this brand loyalty will only hurt your social lives in the end. ive gotten tons of dates with hot ass girls from my area from myspace. chicks dont care about tables and code they care about what hot and easy to do.
I’d like to see any stats endorsing the fact that facebook is stealing myspace users…eventually I believe myspace will die and facebook devs or third party aps will develop a music area which is even more effective and enjoyable than myspace’s band/musician profile setup.
I seriously doubt myspace has 100 million real people that logon even once a year.
you don’t have to decide between the two, kopelman. you can do both.
MySpace dominates by sheer numbers, but Facebook and many other competitors offer much better features. Hopefully someday a switch will be made, as MySpace (I think) is holding back innovation in this sector.
How does anyone possibly get spam on Facebook? I’m deeply confused by that, having never received any (been an active member for about a year, and I’m even in the Seattle geographic network which is more open than the business or school-only networks).
I don’t even actively use MySpace and my account on there is filled with spam, mostly because it doesn’t have the privacy options afforded to Facebook users or the “walls” that Facebook creates with its network model.
I’m proud of myself as a member of Facebook since before they opened their doors to public. Why? Because in months, Facebook will have more users than MySpace!
Just think about how the decision to release their API to developers can bring to the table.
Not only companies can make money with the applications they released for Facebook, but the users too by taking advantage of some of the apps such as the marketplace and Ether.
And because of these capabilities, the number of Facebook users will increase at a very fast rate. The fact that we (and maybe some companies) seem to forget is; On the internet, we can use the same (virtual) product from different companies at the same time comfortably with the help of 3rd party apps. Like in the case of IMs where we can actually have Yahoo Messenger, Live Messenger, and Google Talk running at the same time with the help of other apps such as Meebo, Trillian and Miranda IM.
Facebook is just better in many ways: Photo & video tagging, better privacy controls, file sharing, networking, user interface and the list goes on.
Anyhow, congrats to the Facebook team. And thanks for actually helping us students get in touch with the ‘Course I Am Taking’ feature back in those days.
Now, what the Facebook team needs is a fan-base team effort to pull the users from existing social communities (such as you-know-which-one) like how Firefox is doing it.
Blow the war horn!
I found it a little offensive that an ig test poped up and said 4 of your friends think you’re an idoit, take the test. are they in high school? are they trying to get people upset at each other?