MySpace, the once golden child of social networks, seems to pulling out all the stops to stay relevant. I’ve long been a believer that MySpace is a place for pedophiles and musicians, mostly because after Facebook opened up to everyone, people have realized it’s just not worth it to maintain a profile on the network. Facebook is prettier, has less overwhelming advertising, better applications, and seems less “seedy” than MySpace. I’ve often gotten “friend” requests from strangers on MySpace that think my “profile pic is super sexy” or from people that are “new in town and looking for someone to show them around.” I’ve never been propositioned on Facebook, so I stick to it. It’s like hanging out at a gross singles bar with great music versus your favorite local watering hole that has all your friends, photo hunt, and pool table.
As MySpace lost relevance with its audience, it also loss advertising dollars and brand participation. While Facebook flourishes center stage in many brands’ social marketing plans, MySpace has been marginalized, often forgotten and ignored. In order to survive it has to bring back that crowd and rebuild its image as a reputable social network.
But now, after realizing they are never going to beat the Goliath that is Facebook, MySpace is trying all it can to give people that still hang around the bar something to do. They are getting into online gaming. Who knows exactly what that will mean (will they be adopting Yahoo! games? Creating a whole new gaming interface?), but it should be interesting to see if their gaming angle can bring in a larger audience. Vegas is one of the sexiest cities in the world; maybe MySpace can try to leverage its social networking and music ties to create more of that feeling online. Only time will tell. Brands should keep an eye on MySpace’s odds as it gambles on this new strategy. If they manage to pull off a full house, the companies that are first in line to bet on them in the form of advertising dollars and partnerships will walk away with the biggest winnings.
For myself, I remain skeptical. They probably won’t have free drinks and $5 prime rib, so I won’t be throwing any chips into this pot, will you?
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Great post! But I don’t think the money will come from a Vegas, sexy-style re-do…but from something more nerdastic. comScore reported that (as of May 2009) 87.1 million internet users were online gamers. That number is up 22% from last year! And the predictions only seem to increase. With more and more people turning to the internet for free content (especially MMORPGs), gamers are doing the same. DFC Intelligence issued a report that estimates the online gaming market growing to $13 billion by 2012, nearly triple the current size ($4.5 billion)! Already Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have realized the allure of online games, providing exclusive content for gamers via the web.
In my opinion, Myspace’s best bet would be to create an online gamers community similar to its’ successful music community.
There is definitely money to be made here…whether or not Myspace does it effectively…I guess we’ll see!