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June 29, 2007

MySpace Likely To Open Platform To 3rd Party Developers

Duncan Riley

67 comments »

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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  1. Jay (living in First Life)

    June 29th, 2007 at 1:30 am

    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.

  2. Duncan Riley

    June 29th, 2007 at 1:35 am

    Jay
    MySpace opening up access to 3rd party developers IS following Facebook, read the FT.com article, its all about Facebook and MySpace responding.

  3. Matt Rubens

    June 29th, 2007 at 1:41 am

    Who are “the people who count?”

  4. jared chandler

    June 29th, 2007 at 1:58 am

    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?

  5. Mario Ruiz

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:20 am

    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

  6. Jay (living in First Life)

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:25 am

    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 :)

  7. Chris McLean

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:29 am

    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?

  8. Olly S

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:31 am

    Jay, get over yourself….

  9. 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.

  10. Rajeev

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:39 am

    The more the merrier.

    http://www.teknoworld.blogspot.com

  11. A Voice

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:43 am

    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.

  12. Teddy Lancombe

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:47 am

    “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.

  13. sean percival

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:56 am

    hell = frozen over

    lets hope its true

  14. Michael Camilleri

    June 29th, 2007 at 3:20 am

    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.

  15. MATT

    June 29th, 2007 at 4:25 am

    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.

  16. bdb

    June 29th, 2007 at 5:06 am

    @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.

  17. Rex

    June 29th, 2007 at 5:55 am

    “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?

  18. patricia

    June 29th, 2007 at 6:10 am

    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.

  19. Michael Lacy

    June 29th, 2007 at 6:16 am

    Game’s over.

    Facebook won.

  20. dave

    June 29th, 2007 at 6:17 am

    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)

  21. Mark

    June 29th, 2007 at 6:37 am

    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.

  22. DinoHorse

    June 29th, 2007 at 6:40 am

    MySpace should not open to 3rd parties, they should close to the world…. It’s such a big mess over there…..

  23. G

    June 29th, 2007 at 7:27 am

    “# 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 -

  24. Miguel

    June 29th, 2007 at 7:27 am

    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

  25. Revsense

    June 29th, 2007 at 7:31 am

    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.

  26. Concrete Stain

    June 29th, 2007 at 7:35 am

    who wants to develop for myspace?

    - who wants to develop for free?

    - with the past history of locking out widgets, no thanks -RB

  27. Paul Bradish

    June 29th, 2007 at 7:39 am

    Myspace is playing catch up with Face Book, I love it.

  28. manfromnantucket

    June 29th, 2007 at 7:40 am

    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…

  29. patricia

    June 29th, 2007 at 7:42 am

    @ G, God I agree.

  30. Shawn

    June 29th, 2007 at 7:45 am

    Oh great. I can only imagine what types of (nearly) porn type applications will pop up to market the next up-and-comer…

  31. Janine Taylor

    June 29th, 2007 at 7:55 am

    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?

  32. Eddie

    June 29th, 2007 at 8:06 am

    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?

  33. Janine Taylor

    June 29th, 2007 at 8:13 am

    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!

  34. lajolla5380

    June 29th, 2007 at 8:38 am

    Facebook is down :(

  35. toby

    June 29th, 2007 at 8:55 am

    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.

  36. Jason Alba

    June 29th, 2007 at 8:56 am

    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 ::

  37. Jay (living in First Life)

    June 29th, 2007 at 9:03 am

    @ 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).

  38. Alex

    June 29th, 2007 at 9:48 am

    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.

  39. ORLY

    June 29th, 2007 at 9:58 am

    Facebook looks nice? Facebook looks like a f*#^king spreadsheet !!!!

    Tech nerds have no business telling the world at large what is cool.

  40. Dana Redmond

    June 29th, 2007 at 10:22 am

    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

  41. Jay (living in First Life)

    June 29th, 2007 at 10:42 am

    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

  42. Alaska Miller

    June 29th, 2007 at 11:05 am

    Natali Del Conte or whatever had worse blog posts.

  43. Thomas

    June 29th, 2007 at 11:23 am

    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.

  44. Drama 2.0

    June 29th, 2007 at 11:40 am

    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/

  45. patricia

    June 29th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

    @ G, i mean i agree that duncan shouldn’t come to defend himself… :)

  46. patricia

    June 29th, 2007 at 12:05 pm

    @ 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.

  47. liquidboy

    June 29th, 2007 at 12:26 pm

    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!

  48. fireboy

    June 29th, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    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.’

  49. Jay (living in First Life)

    June 29th, 2007 at 1:41 pm

    #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.

  50. Drama 2.0

    June 29th, 2007 at 1:51 pm

    fireboy: exactly. Facebook has simply invented a fancier wheel that gets technologists to ooh and ahh. The result to end users is almost identical.

  51. bdb

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:24 pm

    @liquidboy, you better back off, these two know everything and they are not required to substantiate arguments; they only ask that others back up their statements. I know, I know, but you have too understand they (Jay and D 2..0) are the founders of numerous successful start-ups, and they know this stuff. Take their word for it.

  52. Rob

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:28 pm

    Danah Boyd has a paper on the class divisions that appear to becoming evident between Facebook and MySpace users. Perhaps Mr.Riley believes the users Ms.Boyd noted as “middle/upper class, college bound teens from upwards mobile or well off families” that have abandoned MS for FB count more than the “marginalized teens, teens from poorer or less educated backgrounds, subculturally-identified teens, and other non-hegemonic teens” that continue to embrace MS.

  53. liquidboy

    June 29th, 2007 at 4:52 pm

    I really don’t need to justify myself and my use of FaceBook. I use it and i like it.

    And I didnt say i disliked MySpace, just that we moved on from it to FaceBook. We’ve grown up from it!!!

    I’d also like to mention that i personally use 2 social networks equally now, both FaceBook (for fun stuff with friends) and LinkedIN (for professional socializing). I’m not an evangelist for FaceBook just a happy user!!!

    ps. (Jay and D 2..0) you both sound very bright NOT!!! Send me your email and ill invite you to my inner circle of dumb friends, from your statements sounds like you’d fit right in with us IDIOTS!!

  54. Marc

    June 30th, 2007 at 1:20 am

    How does an app platform which is a walled garden constitute superior service or product? To the widget maker who posted about how great Facebook is for developing apps. How many other social networks would you be willing to develop an App for? 3? 5? 20? I’m sure this kind of fragmentation would make widget developing a dream and greatly reduce your workload.
    Microsoft provides even greater leverage for .Net developers. The fact that more development takes place on LAMP just doesn’t make sense now does it.

    What I’m getting at is these so-called platforms ruled the roost a decade ago. Anyone remember AOL and all the eyeballs they had for all they’re exclusive services. And before that the mighty Compuserve.

    Some executives today have no memory of those heady times just a decade ago and have no experience with all the important lessons of that time. Proprietary platforms are the model of a decade ago.

    Facebook is rising like a chart-topping hit single by spamming the address book of every new member. If Myspace makes a platform it should be for pop-single publicity only. It’s not condusive to a long life in the jungle.

  55. David Mackey

    June 30th, 2007 at 5:19 pm

    MySpace will need to do some radical reworking to catch up with Facebook.

  56. kevin

    July 1st, 2007 at 8:09 am

    Man, once again these comments show that the “techno elite” have zero concept of what the average user wants when dealing with social networking sites.

    http://www.buzznetworker.com/t.....r-myspace/

  57. Scott Allen

    July 1st, 2007 at 11:10 am

    WTB Akismet plug-in for MySpace groups!!!

  58. P-Air

    July 2nd, 2007 at 8:22 am

    Developers should blow off apps for MySpace after that company’s behavior towards them and how they went out and shut off apps willy-nilly when they didn’t like them or felt they were generating revenues fm their innovations. While Facebook held off opening up, once they decided to do so, they were forthcoming and a true community player. Sure MySpace still has a large audience, but their attitude doesn’t merit the benefit of developers helping them succeed. MySpace hasn’t earned the respect of the development community.

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