An interesting development that took my interest today was news of MySpace wanting to cooperate with other social media sites in a bid to remain relevant in this highly competitive sector. In particular, MySpace wants to share content with both Facebook (a direct competitor) and Twitter. This move comes after news that AOL is looking to flog off Bebo to an interested party.
Facebook and Twitter seem to be the frontrunners in social media. In my mind, Facebook is more geared toward sharing content with family and friends whilst Twitter caters more to broadcasting to whoever will listen (be it active followers or people trawling the bit stream). Admittedly, I’ve not used MySpace much in the past and I still do not use it primarily because I found it way too busy in a visual sense and most of my family and friends were on Facebook anyway. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its uses for particular people though.
Social media is starting to get serious and I think MySpace realises that unless it makes itself relevant quickly, it could find itself turning into a virtual ghost town. In the next couple of years, I think we may see the smaller players swallowed up or drop out of the race altogether. Being the new kid on the block is one thing with heaps of bells and whistles is one thing but driving traffic and monetising your presence and content is critical.
Sharing content with rivals may not be such a bad idea but it could also work against MySpace in the long run. If MySpace is desperate to share its content in order to drive traffic to its site, there would need to be a hook or incentive to get people to click through. As to how MySpace will create this incentive remains to be seen but if it gives away all of its milk for free then no one will be interested in the cow.
I’ll keep an eye on this development but honestly I still cannot see myself being enticed to use MySpace any time soon.
Do you use MySpace or have any particular uses for it?
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