It doesn’t seem to take much for the digital press to slam MySpace these days. First, concerns about the usability of MySpace Music. Then the highly-publicized ousting of founder Chris DeWolfe. Insert layoff. Then, the recent announcement that new CEO Owen Van Natta had been sacked. And against all of this, the steady, [...]]]>

It doesn’t seem to take much for the digital press to slam MySpace these days. First, concerns about the usability of MySpace Music. Then the highly-publicized ousting of founder Chris DeWolfe. Insert layoff. Then, the recent announcement that new CEO Owen Van Natta had been sacked. And against all of this, the steady, exploding phenomena that is Facebook’s gravity-defying growth.

TechCrunch was on-hand at MySpace’s recent company meeting, and reports on the social networking giant’s new plan:

MySpace’s go forward vision was presented to employees, say our sources, and it was all about a single feature thrust that they’re calling “Discovery.”

The idea is to hit users over the head with new stuff when they come to MySpace… If they get this right, the thinking goes, people will want to visit the site over and over again to see what new stuff they can do.

This is effectively a recommendation engine around new content, says one source, but MySpace doesn’t want people calling it that.

A reco engine is MySpace’s deus ex machina? This could prove tricky, as many observers have noted that who a person says he or she is on MySpace may have little resemblance to who they are in real life. How can MySpace hope to effectively unearth its users’ preferences when it cannot verify much factual information about them? (The counter-argument to this is that, regardless of who I say I am on MySpace, I reveal my true preferences through the multimedia content I consume. Tracking my “digital fingerprints” this way may eliminate the need for greater identify verification.)

I hope MySpace finds its mojo on this one, but hearing astute observers like TechCrunch describe this new strategy as a “Hail Mary” play does not inspire confidence.

via MySpace’s Hail Mary Strategy: “Discovery”.

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 [...]]]>

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.

Bebo recently implemented a new site button which let’s its users report priority issues:

The button is called the CEOP Report button, (CEOP stands for UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre), if you click on it, you’ll get advice and help about issues such as child abuse (but also viruses and hacking), as [...]]]>

Bebo recently implemented a new site button which let’s its users report priority issues:

The button is called the CEOP Report button, (CEOP stands for UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre), if you click on it, you’ll get advice and help about issues such as child abuse (but also viruses and hacking), as well as details on how to inform the police and CEOP.

It’s a smart move that signals to law enforcement just how serious Bebo takes child safety. The fact that it is user-driven is another plus, as it does not require Bebo to do anything other than react in a timely manner to reports coming in. Of course, there will always be users who see a predator behind every tree, but wading through the false positives is hopefully something that Bebo bore in mind prior to releasing this feature.

Will MySpace and Facebook release a similar feature? Don’t count on it. MySpace appears to be in a kind of cozy equilibrium with law enforcement, and has little reason to take a proactive measure like this unless compelled to do so. Due to its walled garden approach, Facebook also does not seem to require such a feature. Its users already seem capable of reporting such issues to the mothership without the need for additional mechanisms.

Of course, all of these sites are one ambitious politician’s press conference away from implementing significant new controls to keep their users safe.

via Bebo’s Abuse Button: Should Facebook and MySpace Follow Suit?.

Mike Arrington writes that MySpace is in the final stages of acquiring music streaming site iMeem, and has some choice thoughts on the subject–

We don’t know the price of the acquisition, but this isn’t going to be a big win for investors. iMeem has raised at least $25 million (that we’ve been able [...]]]>

Mike Arrington writes that MySpace is in the final stages of acquiring music streaming site iMeem, and has some choice thoughts on the subject–

We don’t know the price of the acquisition, but this isn’t going to be a big win for investors. iMeem has raised at least $25 million (that we’ve been able to track) plus at least another $10 million in debt. But the difficultly in making a free streaming music service work as a business model forced them to make some hard decisions. Earlier this year they renegotiated label contracts and recapitalized the company, bringing in $6 million in fresh capital.

iMeem found a way to survive a few more months. But now they’re under the financial gun again, we’ve heard, and investors aren’t willing to put more capital into the company. But MySpace is stepping in to acquire the company.

Certainly, it looks like MySpace is putting all its eggs into one very specific basket– monetization of media content. First, the development of MySpace Music (which, reportedly, isn’t doing so well), then the acquisition of iLike, now iMeem.

What if content monetization isn’t the golden goose, after all? MySpace could end up climbing a ladder that’s leaning against the wrong wall. It will be interesting to see whether the social networking giant diversifies its business strategy to pursue other forms of revenue generation.

via MySpace Close to Acquiring iMeem Music Streaming Service — Seeking Alpha.

The question is: how many of these ad dollars will flow to social media? Andy Beal explains:

Sixty-two percent of U.S. online buyers use social networking sites like [...]]]> Forrester Research has just published a report which shows moribund growth in affiliate marketing budgets for 2009, followed by an aggressive compound annual growth rate of 16%:

The question is: how many of these ad dollars will flow to social media? Andy Beal explains:

Sixty-two percent of U.S. online buyers use social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace.com for communicating and keeping up with friends. Only 2% of U.S. online buyers have purchased products through social networking sites. Affiliate sites get paid based on transactions they drive, not simply click-throughs. Thus, affiliate sites currently experimenting with social networks may be getting traffic from these sites, but they are sending very few qualified leads to marketers. Little money will therefore change hands in this scenario.

There’s that word again: experimental. It began as a term of admiration, as in: “Cool– we can allocate some of our ad budget to experimental, up-and-coming sites like Facebook and MySpace.” Over time, however, the term has taken on a less enthusiastic connotation, as in: “Our ad budget is down as it is– you really want to invest some of it in experimental areas like social media?”

I think the cancer at the heart of the rose here is social marketing’s inability to affix ROI metrics to advertising campaigns. A recent report shows that only 16% of companies that use social marketing even bother tracking ROI. (Read another way, a full 84% of companies using social marketing do so in the blind.)

Until we can create a common dashboard of meaningful metrics to measure success, social media will continue to be plagued with the “experimental” moniker.

via Marketers: Don’t Count on Facebook — Seeking Alpha.

Yawn.

Why did it take MySpace so long to add what amounts to a basic feature? Third-party apps have existed for a year which will update [...]]]> Not content to sit on the microblogging sidelines, MySpace recently launched the ability to update your Twitter status from your MySpace profile, as well as update your MySpace status from Twitter.

Yawn.

Why did it take MySpace so long to add what amounts to a basic feature? Third-party apps have existed for a year which will update all of your social networks from a single post. (Ping.fm is my favorite.) MySpace’s timing is also unfortunate, as new reports have come out suggesting that Twitter’s meteoric growth may be over.

Better late than never.

MySpace Hooks Up With Twitter, Offers Two-Way Sync .

In an astounding announcement, Facebook reveals that 65 million users now interact with the site through mobile applications:

Facebook Mobile first started as a simple mobile site in English with a few of the core site features built in, such as status updates and photo uploads. Since then, we’ve grown far beyond what was [...]]]>

In an astounding announcement, Facebook reveals that 65 million users now interact with the site through mobile applications:

Facebook Mobile first started as a simple mobile site in English with a few of the core site features built in, such as status updates and photo uploads. Since then, we’ve grown far beyond what was then a fairly basic mobile site. We have translated the mobile site into other languages, launched Facebook SMS and deployed a wide range of applications for hundreds of mobile handsets, including Facebook for Blackberry, Facebook for iPhone and Facebook for Nokia.

Those who use Facebook mobile apps remember the bare-bones features initially offered through the service (basically, you were allowed to update your status.). With the latest iPhone app, you can now access nearly every feature of the regular site through your phone. This stands in stark contrast to MySpace, whose mobile app suffers from an excess number of ads, and whose much-celebrated deal with Helio has disappointed since inception.

via Facebook | Facebook Mobile: Now Connecting 65 Million People.