We heard that some MySpace insiders weren’t exactly pleased when new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz made a subtle jab at MySpace during the Yahoo earnings call earlier this week.
When asked if Yahoo would start to focus on the younger demographic, Bartz responded “So one thing I would say, I want to make sure that we serve the demographic that we have now very, very well. Also what I would tell you, the good news is, that crowd is very finicky. And just as MySpace was extremely hot and then moved over to Facebook, who knows what’s going to come next and who knows whether Yahoo! can grab that property and be successful.”
The press took that quote and ran with it, writing headlines like this one from Reuters: Facebook hotter than MySpace: Yahoo CEO Bartz.
Bartz may have singled out MySpace because of a Financial Times article noting that the company was successfully targeting Yahoo’s advertisers.
I caught MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe in the hallway at the World Economic Forum at Davos earlier today. I have a much longer interview that I’ll post tomorrow. But I also asked him what he thought of being called out by Bartz. His response is in the video above. He was polite, but threw in a couple of zingers, saying Bartz, who is new to the consumer Internet space and is still learning, and “she’s not from this industry and it will probably take some time to get acclimated.” He also says he doubts Bartz has ever been on the MySpace website. Full transcript of the brief exchange is below.
Michael Arrington: I’m here with MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe. Chris, sorry to grab you in the hallway, there’s something I’ve mean meaning to ask you. A couple of days ago the new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on an earnings call said something we found kind of funny. She said something along the lines of “Facebook is hot, MySpace isn’t, or MySpace is dead “or something along those lines. I found that interesting given that you guys have a pretty awesome revenue trajectory and also you guys are partners on OpenSocial and some other stuff. What was your reaction to that?
Chris DeWolfe: I didn’t have a big reaction to that. I think she is fairly new to the consumer internet space and is probably still learning. I hear she’s a really smart person and she’ll do a good job there. I doubt she’s been on our site and if you look at our numbers in the United States, we have 76 million unique users and our nearest competitor has 45 million unique users. So, it’s kind of an odd statement but again, she’s not from this industry and it will probably take some time to get acclimated.
Michael Arrington: All right, thanks very much.
What is hot in this climate is profits …
So Myspace is definitely hotter than Facebook in this regard.
Anjali Sen
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No doubt about that…
same here
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She is not from this industry but seems to speak the truth.
Oh. And Arrington or DeWolfe are from the industry? How is that? They nominated themselves? And exactly what “industry” is that anyway?
What a bunch of conceited bullshit.
I find every time DeWolfe opens his mouth, he comes across as very intelligent and professional. Whenever Anderson opens his mouth, he doesn’t come across that way. I remember reading an article on Forbes from 2005 (or 2006, don’t remember) with an interview with both of them and DeWolfe seemed to be picking up on Anderson’s fumbles. I’m generally impressed with DeWolfe. Maybe Anderson is good too, but it just seems that DeWolfe needs to be the only of the two who speaks publically.
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MySpace was so hot at one point a few years ago, they operated very arrogant and wanted to be treated like Gods.
Zuck comes along, cleans up the GUI of a social site, block people from harassing you all day, opens up the platform so developers can eat, and the advertising platform isn’t that bad either….
If MySpace wasn’t so busy gloating over their success then maybe they would have been innovating instead of allowing Facebook to just steal their shine.
Who still goes to MySpace?
There was a study done on the relative income levels of MySpace users versus Facebook users. Facebook definitely has the more affluent community.
When the wife and all her corny friends and sisters are all hooked on Facebook, you know its a winner. I mean they have clubs and the whole 9 yards.
None of them have a MySpace account.
It’s true what she said. Facebook was very popular and now not so much. People are moving, and haven’t completely (just yet), to Facebook.
When DeWolfe says that MySpace has more unique visitors than Facebook, that doesn’t really prove anything about Myspace’s situation. Is it less than it used to be? How fast is it shrinking? He doesn’t say. He uses a fallacy, a statement with big numbers, to trick others into thinking MySpace is still as strong as it used to be.
I think you meant to say that MySpace was very popular and now not so much.
MySpace’s battle with Facebook is starting to mirror Yahoo’s with Google. We all know how that turned out.
Bartz needs to learn that the rule about web company fight club is that you don’t talk about other web companies.
Well, maybe it is time to change that rule!
oh snap!! pwned!!!
i’m still trying to figure out what value Michael’s question has or had. is this the best he could muster at such an important event? can we convince techcrunch writers to focus on meaningful news and reduce their dependence on gossip and misquoted barbs?
only michael arrington and techcrunch came out of this scenario looking foolish
Shouldn’t you be spitting on people?
Daniel, you are such a sucker
Maybe Bartz spoke too soon…but when I say soon, I mean soon as in minutes http://siteanal....com/?metric=uv.
For god sake DeWolfe, MySpace has been bleeding in the growth department for a while now. MySpace looks like a beaten, read-headed step child next to Facebook’s excellent markup, fluid UI, and forward thinking. Here’s a hint, stop letting people make their pages look like a f_cking technicolor dream coat and you’ve won half the battle GI Joe!
I don’t think people quite get it… having the better product, but making no money off of it and operating at a loss gets you nothing
Yeah, Facebook is a way better site… but their burning through VC like it’s going out of style and they still have yet to come up with an effective means of earning profit.
Just you wait… now that they’re finally as big as MySpace globally… the spammers, the law suits and scandals (which have already started – see “Facebook Killer”) , and the mountain of ads are coming… just you wait.
Facebook now has more total users world-wide than MySpace does right now… good for them… if that’s the case, why did MySpace rake in nearly 3x as much revenue as Facebook did in the past fiscal year? Additionally, one could easily make the assumption since most of Facebook’s growth has been internationally that their operating costs are higher than MySpace’s since expanding into international markets is almost always more expensive both initially and in the upkeep.
MySpace is still winning by a wide margin in areas where the consumer dollars live, and focusing on heavily on revenues. Unlike many others such as Yahoo, Facebook, etc, MySpace was actually well above revenue targets for the first 6-8 months of the 2008 fiscal year. Everyone else was apparently already getting a head start on the upcoming financiapacalypse with their profits in the crapper.
Honestly… I’m out to make money. If I were MySpace or Rupert I would be laughing my ass off all the way to the bank. Who cares about how many users you have?
What’s important is the bottom line… cash is king, users are just numbers…
“MySpace has been bleeding in the growth department for a while now.”
Also, that statement really isn’t correct looking at your own graph. They haven’t been growing *as much* but they aren’t “bleeding”. Their growth has slowed to a crawl (up 5.5%) and is near flat-lining but they aren’t moving the other direction yet.
In any case, they’ve got no where else go to… again their focus has been on revenue so they haven’t been putting the effort into international expansion like FB has because there just isn’t as much money in it, only additional operating costs.
Their focus has been domestically and in other key markets where they still completely dominate.
They’ve reached a point in those markets where they pretty much already have all the users/visitors that anyone could possibly get… slow or little growth is expected, they are doing the right thing by focusing on revenues.
Hey Brando,
Sorry to break it to you:
http://siteanal....com/?metric=uv
This month’s numbers have them down on the year, ouch!
Facebook will be profitable if they don’t remain closed off and unwilling to partner in more open and dramatic ways.
Facebook is like the Apple of the 21st century and MySpace is like its Microsoft. (I actually have a new site that is founded on .NET 3.5 so I am not MS hating troll, fyi)
Microsoft still has a huge pull in the industry because they have permiated teh fabric of computing and once reliant a firm is reluctant to switch. Thus, it may be a while before we would see apple with above 20% market share.
On the flip side this is the internet Facebook can grab users faster than Apple can get customers from MS for three reasons:
1. Platform and Data Mobility
2. Demographic is not brand tied
3. Both are removed from hardware or system considerations, thus the barrier to switch is exponentially lower.
MySpace will continue to make money, that is not in contention. But it will decline and Facebook will eclipse it in all areas. My money is on a 3 to 5 year winner not a craptastically coded POS with a limited revenue outlook and shrinking lifespan.
- And that’s the word!
I thought that it was interesting that on the call she mentioned her daughter posting photos to faceback but never mentioned flickr once. I’m also surprised that she doesn’t have an account with photos on flickr if for no other reason than pr alone.
I use faceback and myspeck. I also use fatback, but I post my photos on flacker or pickleoso. My OS of choice is macrosift wangdos, but I also use ipple OSY. Gotta go, my favorite song just came on MX satellite radio.
Is it just me or does Chris DeWolfe look like a pedo?
Sorry, but it’s just you. Because you are a pedo, you tend to think that you see them everywhere.
At the end of the day facebook doesnt make money, myspace does PERIOD. SHUT UP ABOUT how cool facebook is. It’s old hat. Run a business they way a business is run and get your head out of your asses silicon valley because the world doesn’t start and stop here, although everyone who reads techcrunch thinks it does. Who gives a shit about your little widget company, its all about making money!
When facebook is posting profit and massive revenues we can start a real conversation of which one is better. It’s obvious that myspace attracts a fantasy group that wants to play roles outside of their own life and boundaries.
Believe me O, I am well aware of the revenue that each of these socialite hangouts bring in. Sure Rupert Murdoch is a smart guy, but more than that, he is connected with several high-power media outlets and has the ability to generate leads and large deals in a way few in the industry can. But O, the big but, is the fact that I was not talking about this very moment (as I explicitly stated). MySpaces views, traffic, loyalty stats and the like are all declining from what the were while Facebook in making huge gains in those areas. Not to mention the fact that Facebook has internationalized rediculously better than MySpace. Over seas it’s likely to be “MySpace what? Is that a hip new storage facility for college kids to keep their shit in during the summers?”
Expand your vision a bit O, Facebook isn’t domonating the rev. numbers now but if I was betting you, I would take the 1000 shares of Facebook and you can have the 1000 shares of MySpace, wait 5 years and guess who wins that…
(Oh, O, I know neither one is directly publicly traded…though I guess indirectly you could buy News Corp. stock…so don’t be an ass and quick to “catch me” on the 1000 shares scenario above, thanks for your time, you may now place your short-sighted blinders back on.)
Daniel, please no more self righteous rants where all you do is state the obvious (over and over). Boring.
noob-slapped her!
It appears that Michael Arrington, Kara Swisher, Valleywag, and the rest of the tech blogs are adjusting to a world with very few Yahoo! leaks from the inside and so they are trying desperately to drum up some drama related to Yahoo. This seems to me rather a childish attempt at doing so.
During the presidential political campaign there was that whole asinine debate about “lipstick on a pig” that distracted people from the core issues — likewise Michael and Kara attempt to distract people from the core issues.
I think Carol is quite right. Myspace is bleeding customers but still is pretty huge.
But I am astounded by the similarity between Myspace and Yahoo. Yahoo also has a huge traffic base, mostly thanks to it’s mail system.
But Yahoo is either growing too slowly in this segment (2% mail growth) or loosing with the younger generation. Gmail has been growing at a phenomenal rate and it’s user base is almost 100 million though still 1/3 rd of Yahoo. (See the Myspace and Facebook analogy again
)
Hey Michael,
Don’t you have anything interesting, may be genuine stuff, to post here?
WTF are all the tech people doing at the World Economic Forum? What does Max Levchin at Slide.com going to do to solve the world economic crisis?
MySpace is the leading social network in the US, there’s no doubt in that. If you see the demography, it’s specifically popular among the young crowd in the US and media rules in MySpace. There’s an interesting website called Cruxle (www.cruxle.com) that mines these information from MySpace and gives us a good sense of what type of media is popular among the demography in MySpace. Check it out Yahoo and MySpace!
… and then DeWolfe spit in his face. (too soon?)
You mean there was a second spitter? From the grassy knoll?
I wish people didn’t equate clean design to good UI.
People are easily fooled.
hmmm..
hımm yesss thank video
How can anyone not see it?
Myspace will die an extremely slow death. It was diagnosed with a terminal illness a long time ago.
Myspace is as much about getting laid as Facebook is about getting paid. Unfortunately, none will carry these networks into a sustainable business model.
YaHoO! can’t afford to talk trash to MySpace, and especially Chris DeWolfe, since YaHoO! is always sl’dackin behind Google in earnings. The new CEO just wants to get known, that’s all, SON….lol
That’s funny..lol
Just some friendly competition between two dinosaurs.
You mean there was a second spitter? From the grassy knoll?
It’s really funny
YaHoO! can’t afford to talk trash to MySpace, and especially Chris DeWolfe, since YaHoO! is always sl’dackin behind Google in earnings. The new CEO just wants to get known, that’s all, SON….lol
Ladies and Gentlemen, your TechCrunch readers!
Absolutely, I was going to comment until I saw your comment and so am replying it – not only was he totally unprofessional, he sounded like he was stoned, he needs to master the English language, perhaps some grammar lessons.
It always cracks me up when bloggers think they are journalists! Ha – what a tool!