MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe has indicated that MySpace will likely open its platform to 3rd party developers, according to a report at FT.com
The move will see MySpace following in the footsteps of Facebook; Facebook’s wildly popular F8 release has seen in excess of 1000 additional applications made available to Facebook users and has driven enormous growth.
MySpace still maintains leadership in the social networking space based on user numbers and traffic, and has continued to grow; however there is little doubt today that the hearts and minds of the people who count have abandoned MySpace for Facebook. The moves to an open platform also comes after reports earlier this week claiming that DeWolfe was asking for a $12.5 million annual salary to stay on at MySpace. If DeWolfe can successfully play catch-up with Facebook he may end up being worth it.
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I’m struggling to understand how Myspace is playing “catch up” to Facebook. Facebook’s CPM is far lower than that of Myspace. Facebook has far fewer members. Facebook has lost its USP while Myspace is the same old. Everyone in Silicon Valley is so enamored with Facebook. Good for Zuckerberg. In all honesty, he’s a damn smart guy. He’s played all of you for the fools you really are. Three cheers for Zuckerberg and being one of the few people who actually makes some dough.
Jay
MySpace opening up access to 3rd party developers IS following Facebook, read the FT.com article, its all about Facebook and MySpace responding.
Who are “the people who count?”
how is this not going make myspace tackier than it already is? how realistic is this in light of all the security issues myspace has without 3rd party apps?
MySpace could the platform as well as PopFly. It is a good idea. Most times we find negative comments toward Microsoft. But this is one of the few instances you visit the site and I am sure, you are going to have a good impression. You may wonder if this is original from MS.
MySpace could the platform for web 2.0 realm for many companies such as salesforce.com (other CRM sites as well), basecamp.com (other project management as well).
I just wrote a post in practical terms for what I see the next applications for E2.0 using MS tools.
Mario Ruiz
http://www.oursheet.com
Duncan,
You still fail to address the core issue raised. Just because someone copies someone else’s strategy does not necessarily they are playing “catch up”. What if Myspace’s strategy is to watch Facebook bomb with apps (read ValleyWag please) and then use that experience to do a better job.
When Yahoo launched Panama, it was playing catch up to Google. I don’t see Myspace playing catch up to Facebook. The site is already littered with thousands of apps. Facebook just put a nice fancy spin on it to make the echosphere right about it. Again, Zuckerberg is a genius.
What basis do you have for calling F8 wildly popular?
TechCrunch has no basis for 90% of its claims anymore. Let’s summarize standard TC claims:
- This is a huge success (it has 1000 users who pay nothing and will leave in 2 weeks)
- This will be a huge success (because its founded by some uber-Geek who really doesn’t know how to make real money: Kevin Rose, Jason Calacanis, Evan Williams)
- This could be a huge success (Michael Arrington likes it)
- “Wildly popular” (Extremely over-hyped)
- I’m tired of the bubble (Goodness, we are the fueling the bubble yet it’s so damn annoying to see retarded companies like Last.fm get bought out for so much and then they don’t even stick to the National Day of Silence! GASP! Those damn Europeans! They’ve taken money from the man!)
Time to grow up TechCrunch
I rarely comment here but I also wanted some clarification on the “people who count”. I get that Facebook is the early adopter/blogosphere darling of the month but what makes them the people who count?
Jay, get over yourself….
Duncan your posts continue to be very one sided. You need to start being more factual and less opinionated.
The more the merrier.
http://www.teknoworld.blogspot.com
You guys seem to forget that this is a blog and not a news site. A blog is entitled to its author’s opinions and if you disagree with it, you can debate it or leave for the exit.
And then when you start nitpicking on little details and how enthused the author is about something, you’re just going way overboard.
“however there is little doubt today that the hearts and minds of the people who count have abandoned MySpace for Facebook”
Excuse me? What kind of statement is that? Who counts? Tech bloggers? What an absurd notion. Last count: MySpace is about 3 times bigger than Facebook. I guess those 110 million users reported by Comscore this month just aren’t the people who “count” - eh?
Facebook is a great service and my site of preference, but all this laudation is enough. MySpace has been an “open platform” since its launch. Facebook followed MySpace by finally realizing that people wanted to do something more with their profiles than type in lists of interest and plain text descriptions.
And if you want to talk about who is abandoning who, check this bit of research:
http://blog.compete.com/2007/0.....-adopters/
This shows that Facebook users are more likely to leave Facebook for MySpace. It also shows that more of the original Facebook users have chosen to also use MySpace, while less of the original MySpace users also use Facebook.
Perhaps you should try doing some research of your own before making such elitist and inane remarks.
hell = frozen over
lets hope its true
This is news to me but I’m grateful to know I am a person who counts.
Or does Duncan mean MySpace users are innumerate as well as colour blind? This I could believe.
Who is this duncan character… ……………….? Has he used myspace before? 3rd party apps have been synonymous with myspace for quite sometime… just becauce they don’t post it in an easy to use press release doesn’t mean it’s not true.
@Jay, You really need to take the “red pill” and shrink back to normal size. Don’t ever point to Valleyrag as a source of evidence. They have some story showcasing some “valley whiner” that developed an app (he doesn’t say which, of course) for Facebook that didn’t get the viral distribution perks utilized by the launch partners. He obviously had created some “me too/three/etc” app like many in the valley that can’t identify an opportunity until there are a couple other companies doing something similar. So what?
Facebook is not going to “bomb”, they had to minimize the viral distribution because users complained about all the invites. Myspace has so much crap on it, the few times I’ve been there I closed the tab in less than 10s. Myspace *users* may number 110M, but there are many people with 3+ pages on there.
Please support this claim with some citation: “Facebook’s CPM is far lower than that of Myspace.” You are no authority.
“The moves to an open platform also comes after reports earlier this week claiming that DeWolfe was asking for a $12.5 million annual salary to stay on at MySpace. If DeWolfe can successfully play catch-up with Facebook he may end up being worth it.”
whatn 12.5m for a no-brainer like that?
Ay yay yay, you guys. I’m sure that “the people who count” are the people who the platform was built on, and yeah, you don’t want them going anywhere when you own a community like that.
MySpace always seems to follow when it should be leading, either way. I don’t know that it has to play catch up to anybody, however, because it still has a pretty large and sticky audience.
As far as user numbers go, I think all of the sites out there are full of sh*t about their traffic. Somehow, EVERYBODY has huge traffic, huge members, yet we are all very aware that lots of profiles aren’t used, are spammers, etc., and the fact that no single analytics tool is that accurate. It’s like saying that all magazines in the media world have Business Week circulation numbers. It’s just uncanny. I don’t buy any of it.
Game’s over.
Facebook won.
hmmm…a media company trying to act like a software company? haven’t we already seen somebody else fuck this up big time? (hint: steve case)
You’re really underestimating the power of brand loyalty. The people who count are the masses - and their hearts and minds are set. I’d bet the MySpace faithful feel the same way about facebook as we feel about MySpace. It’s the same reason why most people drink shitty beer all there lives. They start out with Budweiser (myspace) and never let go.
MySpace should not open to 3rd parties, they should close to the world…. It’s such a big mess over there…..
“# Jimbo
June 29th, 2007 at 2:32 am
Duncan your posts continue to be very one sided. You need to start being more factual and less opinionated.”
Second that opinion (and so do the 23 other people that work for me and read Techcrunch). Duncan stop fighting with your readers and dont try to be an expert on everything - you are not!! Bad enough Techcrunch does not have the editorials and commentary it used to have - now they have deal with your insecurities. Try the “Om Malik techniques” for a while - you might be surprised how much it helps.
Take it light -
What’s interesting to me is that Myspace has had the opportunity all along. Developers were/are making apps for Myspace and have been for years.
The only news to report here is that Myspace has finally realized they’re better off opening their system instead of trying to sue or acquire every developer that has built something for them.
If it weren’t for people embedding youtube vids, there’d be no Myspace video. Photo embedding and the best they could think of was to buy Photobucket.
If DeWolfe wants to prove his asking price, maybe he can use his new found developer resources to improve the core functionality/stability of that ridiculous site
Wow, “people who count”.
Tell you what, its exactly the opposite. For a site like MySpace and Facebook, we the techies DO NOT COUNT. We don’t matter.
Its ordinary people like my mom, my dad, my uncles and aunts and nieces and nephews and others who click on the ads and make money for your typical Web 2.0 site.
Dude, we’re so far from mattering to their advertising bottom line or number of members metric, it hurts.
who wants to develop for myspace?
- who wants to develop for free?
- with the past history of locking out widgets, no thanks -RB
Myspace is playing catch up with Face Book, I love it.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Myspace has traditionally shut down apps that threaten to invade privacy or that take data from user pages… maybe now some of us can creep out into the sunlight and grow faster.
Also the issue of monetization is interesting - facebook seems more open to letting developers profit in a synergistic way while myspace poisons its own financial ecosystem by choking off those who run ads, etc.
All said, you have to wonder what kind of apps can be developed on the
rather limited technology underpinnings of myspace. I cant imagine them fielding a well-designed asynch API where developers could correct the confusing navigation already in place, and it’s a bit difficult to envision a way of integrating apps in a logically consistent way as they are on facebook… All this could take a long time given how hard it is to introduce any infrastructure change in such a widely used old piece of …. software.
A good, meaningful first step I’d like to see is an announcement of some sort of POLICY changes - some clear statements or a developers’ program
that supports the existing add-on market or at least better defines its rules…
@ G, God I agree.
Oh great. I can only imagine what types of (nearly) porn type applications will pop up to market the next up-and-comer…
All this media attention about Facebook vs. MySpace is ridiculous. I, too, am a Facebook user, but I also use MySpace. I love them both. There, I said it. I know there are others in the same boat. Facebook is the gay male, MySpace is the straight male — nothing wrong with that!
It’s quite easy to overlook the fact that MySpace is still growing. They just launched MySpaceTV and MySpace News beta, etc. And although MySpace News (http://news.myspace.com/) hasn’t killed Digg yet, young MySpace users will soon be using it a one-stop resource. Same with MySpaceTV…why go to YouTube when you have MySpace TV right there?
Janine makes some valid points. Facebook’s apps are growing for sure, but MySpace will always be the winner in my mind. With that said, who cares? I don’t know if MySpace News will ever be the “one-stop resource” as Janine says, but it’s certainly a useful tool, so I agree that, at some point, it will surpass Digg. In fact, I can bet money on this. Give it time. Who wants to make a bet?
Just to clarify, when I said in my last comment that MySpace is the straight male and Facebook is the gay male, this is what I mean:
Facebook is clean, has a rather sterile feminine kind of feel. MySpace is somewhat masculine and tough, like the stereotypical “straight man”
And, like I said, nothing wrong with either. I’m not discriminating at all!
Facebook is down
This is interesting considering myspace likes to block widgets. It seems a bit contradictory.
Either be web 2.0 and open up, or go old school news corp style and shut everyone down.
This back and forth just makes them look ridiculous.
MySpace: “me too! me too!”
I think it’s cool that FB will go down in history as starting this all. (yes, I know MS has had all kinds of widgetry, but if this is true it should take to to another level, preventing the widget lockouts (comment #26) and the types of interfaces (comment #30). It’s getting funner and funner :p
Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com
:: self-serve career management ::
@ 8 Olly - let’s see what your blog predicts… Foldera? Nope. DOA. Google using social data? Nope. Plaxo? Nope. iPhone runaway success - perhaps.
@ 16 bdb - the data doesn’t lie. Did you see the charts (http://valleywag.com/tech/hypebusting/facebooks-platform-273355.php). I apologize for the error on the lowest CPM comment. The correct comment is rather that they have the lowest click-through rate (here’s some data http://valleywag.com/tech/adve.....242234.php)
What’s wrong with ValleyWag? Just because it’s one of the few blogs that isn’t high on Web 2.0 to the degree of people at TechCrunch who constantly pump up stupid start-ups and reward their own buddies with press (ahem, Justin.tv).
Does Duncan’s writing style remind anyone else of another (now fired, ex-)TC writer?
The same empty pontificating without facts, numbers, experience, or credibility to back it up with.
Facebook looks nice? Facebook looks like a f*#^king spreadsheet !!!!
Tech nerds have no business telling the world at large what is cool.
Someone above said “Myspace *users* may number 110M, but there are many people with 3+ pages on there.” - WRONG! There are 180 million MySpace accounts last time I checked, 110 Million is the comscore numbers for their worldwide uniques last month.
It’s funny how people who read this blog are so opinionated and think they’re so smart, but never bother to look at the facts. Or they ignore the facts to suit their opinion. One person above says all the traffic measurement companies are wrong and show every website as huge. No they do not! They all show that MySpace is about 3 times bigger than Facebook.
Most of these services you have to pay for and are used by the advertising community to know where to spend their money. Here’s a public one:
http://blog.compete.com/2007/0.....-visitors/
It shows US Myspace: 67 million, US Facebook: 20 mil
Comscore (you have to pay for this) shows MySpace has 110 mill worldwide uniques
But honestly, who at TechCrunch cares anymore. It seems that the only things that matter now are:
- iPhone
- F8 (Facebook)
- Mahalo (totally worthless search engine)
- Anything from Kevin Rose (”This Dumb Kid Made $60 Million in 18 months and you can too!”)
- Anything from Y-Bombinator
- Anything else that’s really foolish and worthless
Natali Del Conte or whatever had worse blog posts.
Dear Duncan Riley:
I am deeply offended by your bias statement:
“…however there is little doubt today that the hearts and minds of the people who count have abandoned MySpace for Facebook.”
I prefer MySpace and always will. Does my heart and mind “count”?
Please stop giving Facebook free publicity.
This is an interesting post given that Duncan wrote a post earlier in the month entitled “Rumors Of The Decline Of MySpace Are Exaggerated.” Has Duncan been hanging around John Kerry? This might be the best TechCrunch flip-flop ever.
I don’t know what Facebook has been spiking the kool aid with, but it’s amusing to see claims like “there is little doubt today that the hearts and minds of the people who count have abandoned MySpace for Facebook” being made with absolutely no facts or statistics provided to back them up. In reality, the facts and statistics seem to best support an argument that MySpace is still the dominant force in social networking when you look at all the important metrics (usage, registered users, revenues generated and mindshare in pop culture).
None of this is to say that Facebook isn’t a competitor in the space, but there’s no reason for people to be frothing at the mouth just yet. The statistics don’t justify it, and posts like the one on Valleywag that critically examine Facebook’s platform with real data raise a lot of questions.
http://www.drama20show.com/200.....e-myspace/
@ G, i mean i agree that duncan shouldn’t come to defend himself…
@ dana, I mean all web 2.0 sites overall - in the case of myspace or facebook, i’d say moreso about registered members. nobody has to agree but i do have a long background in the business.
as for analytics, it’s been widely published that no one tool is truly accurate, and that issues such as video and ajax can potentially skew result further.
you guys dont understand.. facebook’s apps platform is awesome (comming from a widget developer)
And i was a myspace user but have since moved over to facebook. And all my immediate friends have too (about 60+ of us).
We all are in our 20’s, 30’s and we all spend money on the internet (buying music, booking flights etc etc) ..
All of us that have come over agree that it s@%@’s all over myspace.
To us facebook wins and myspace loses
ps. for those that dont understand facebooks app architecture then don’t comment on it assuming you know it. First and most important there app architecture gives you access to most of an individuals information which you as a widget designer can mash up in amazing ways. MySpace does NOT allow you to do that easily.
FACEBOOK WINS!
myspace has 180 million, facebook 30 mil = myspace wins.. you and ur geeky widget developers do not constitute a “win” .. and the larger point is that even with facebooks API access to specifuc user data, there are no apps in the top 20 that use it in any sophisticated way.. its all just a rehash of what myspace has had for years.. ‘choose your top 8, add music, horoscopes, etc.’
#47 liquidboy
We clearly don’t understand people who can’t spell and use awful grammar. What kind of apps do you make for Facebook? Ones that let you rate how bad your friends’ farts smell? Your friends and you don’t constitute a win. By leaving Myspace and joining Facebook you and your dumb friends have raised the average IQ of Myspace and decreased that of Facebook.
# 48 fireboy
You are right.
fireboy: exactly. Facebook has simply invented a fancier wheel that gets technologists to ooh and ahh. The result to end users is almost identical.