MySpace yesterday announced that it would allow users to finally upload videos directly to the site. According to the company, users can hook up a camcorder, go to MySpace TV, and click the “Record” button to record a video to the site on-the-fly.
The company thinks it may be on to something with its new direct upload feature, though. MySpace claims the videos can be embedded in member profiles, comments, and bulletins quickly, making it an ideal solution for those who want immediate gratification and want friends to see the video as soon as possible.
MySpace was ostensibly quick to forget that YouTube and other competitors have had this feature for a while and failed to mention that although it upgraded file size limits to 512MB, YouTube’s limit hovers at 1GB. This may not sound like much of a difference on either front, but it begs the question of whether or not MySpace is properly positioned to capitalize on the growing video market.
YouTube served more than 5 billion videos in July alone, according to comScore numbers released yesterday. MySpace was a distant second, serving just 445 million videos. Granted, this new feature may help increase that figure somewhat in subsequent months, but it certainly won’t have such an impact that MySpace TV will become a more relevant service in the space.
Maybe it’s time MySpace starts working on something that YouTube hasn’t already done. Even though it’s not a video site by trade and it has other things to consider in growing its business, the online video market is strengthening — 75 percent of Americans viewed videos in July alone — and unless MySpace starts differentiating its product, there’s little reason for anyone to move from YouTube to MySpace TV.
I guess so. Myspace is a bit late…
A bit late? Try years late… not that I really care about Myspace to begin with…
It seems like they are watching others instead of innovating on what they want MySpace to be or become. I think this is a site that is getting stale and something new will come along soon to take it’s place. But from what I have read, it’s tough to scale a site like this, so any new site to take it’s place will need to be cutting edge.
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It is a good move on their part - many of the people who used to login to their MySpace, then login to YouTube, then embed, will now have an easy solution in one place. Convenience alone will be enough for some people to switch.
I agree that they do need to innovate and differentiate to make a dent into YouTube’s market leadership on the video side. That is why we are innovating at Mefeedia and offering things such as social activity aggregation (i.e. “FriendFeed for Video”) and Media Search.
I don’t think it’s ever too late to add in features to a service. Well, maybe if it’s completely dead and buried, but it’s still a good move to catch up with the pack. Whether it’ll generate more users is hard to say, but worth a shot either way.
A Flash video recorder for webcam is not the same as “uploading video” and is a good move to “catch up with the pack” if your pack is living in 2006.
I never said it was wholesale catching up, but every little bit helps. I know we’d like to see them step and put all their efforts into the video services, but we’d like to see that from any business. Who knows, maybe they don’t have as many engineers on staff as YouTube or certain other places. Laughable as that may sound, remember that MySpace hadn’t even begun to really update thier site’s services until about a year ago.
I dont care about it at all…
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Look around guys, everyone is doing something that’s already been done. People are also improving on those things. Agreeing with the above poster.. it’s never too late.
Wait, MySpace still exists?
Yeah, and it is the biggest socnet by far in the most ‘monetizable’ market in the world: the US.
Myspace is monetizable? Or are you just saying that “the US” is?
with no small business long tail ad inventory substance. a playground site. if it was that great and had huge growth potential rupert would not want to sell it to yahoo.
people dont go to myspace to get work done or to find people who are hard workers. how many people have said they found a dentist at myspace. they will never be a serious online destination for getting the work done. DentalLocator now that makes sense. they appear to have identity issues when it comes to being a serious online destination for anything other than entertainment. a small business marketed on myspace will never be taken seriously. Which ad would the plumber rather put on his van.
“Find us at Myspace.com.” or “Find us at PlumberLocator.com”.
MyLoctator is the MySpace for Business. The serious need only apply.
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Yes, MySpace still exists and they are very profitable. They are a big sleeping giants and those are always tough companies to move. They don’t deserve the wrath they get.
Is any of this really relevant until someone figures out how to monetize online video? What does market share really mean if these companies can’t monetize their feature set?
YouTube is awesome for pirated and copyrighted videos, but maybe this helps MySpace become a better place for personal videos.
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best MP3 for Myspace apps
It’s true: Spam is MySpace’s strength.
It will definitely help myspace.com especially vis-a-vis with its populations of band and fan spaces. What will facebook and Ilike’s response be?
Silence, if they’re smart.
Yup my space has been a bit late but still being late doesn’t mean that the public is not going to utilize it.Some things ought to be done without seeing when are they done.Its just a part of business strategy and you know that very well.
better late then never, right??? I mean since when is this bad?
YouTube’s 1GB limit is just for show, considering that their length limit is 10min.
I think people who see the demise of MySpace aren’t considering the serious impact of having a user base as large as their site. Heck - I have made contacts all across the board from my social network on MySpace - including finding good local doctors, dentists, hairstylists, new hot spots, etc.
It all depends on the quality of your network. It doesn’t matter if its MySpace, Facebook, or any of the N number of social sites.
not sure this is newsworthy. “not exactly a novel feature being tacked on to an existing platform” … blah
I expected Myspace to implement features like that a long time ago. I guess we shall see how it turns out.
I really like music and think myspace is fab so I don’t mind improvements even if they are deemed to be late. While other social networking sites seem to love bagging myspace it has a lot of features and seems from use a lot more stable than facebook with applications that work. I love im, skype and just the multitude of music to be discovered, secret shows. Really i don’t get the same service from any other site…last FM a close second maybe.
Great first step. Now, if only I could upload videos taken on my mobile phone directly onto MySpace…
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I would be interested to see the Youtube stats for Upload vs Live Recording.
On the technical side, I assume that they are using Flash on the client, but I am curious to know if they have licensed Flash Media server or using Red5 solution (The Flash Media Server open source alternative)?
I read that Youtube is using Flash media server. Not sure about Seesmic.
We are in a web video era. I don’t believe it’s a matter of being too late. Video is just another medium to allow people to communicate. I do believe that users will gravitate to the better overall user experience, whichever that may be.