Transplanting social network success to distant shores can be damn near impossible.
Unless you’re Facebook.
Consider MySpace’s experience: pushed by Murdoch to expand its international operations, the social network opened a series of foreign offices in countries as far-flung as South Korea and Turkey. These outcroppings at the edge of the digital empire were sacrificed early in the economic meltdown, and MySpace has since reconsidered its plans for international expansion in the post-DeWolfe era.
Now, Bebo is shutting down its Australian offices. While this will not result in any disruption to Bebo users down under, it is significant nonetheless, because it suggests that Bebo is suffering a similar fate to MySpace in that it is simply unable to compete against Facebook’s international crush:
A remarkable story from this picture is that MySpace, once heralded as the social network of our generation, will soon be reduced to the same tiny share of Bebo, a social network most Americans have never heard of before– and all because of the emergence of a relatively late entrant to the field of social networks. One wonders whether Bebo can pick up any opportunities to steal share from MySpace as both networks continue to lose ground.
Hitwise Intelligence – Alan Long – Asia Pacific.
