Tech | November 04, 2010 | 3 comments

MySpace put on notice: make money or it's over

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richjm
Poor MySpace. The future looked so bright, until all those gaudy profiles and lurid wall messages meant everyone jumped ship to the simpler refuge offered by Facebook.

In the past few years, it seems like MySpace has struggled to figure out the point of its own existence. People are using sites like Facebook as their preferred place for friends, bands favour Twitter for communicating with the fans, and music services like Spotify and Last Fm are the go-to of choice now for listening to songs.

The decline of MySpace came not long after Rupert Murdoch forked out $327 million for the site in 2005. Since then it hasn't quite been the cash cow News Corp. expected it to be and, in fact, presently operates on a loss.

News Corp. execs aren't happy. They've reportedly put MySpace's execs on notice and told them to ensure the site starts making a profit... or else.

"We've been clear that MySpace is a problem," News Corp. COO Chase Carey told Wall Street analysts in an earnings call. "The current losses are not acceptable or sustainable."

The company doesn't say how much MySpace makes. But the category in News Corp.'s financial report that's dominated by MySpace lost $156 million in the quarter that ended in September vs. a loss of $126 million in the same period last year, on revenues of $298 million, down 25.5%.

I've still got a MySpace profile but I rarely (if ever) use it these days. After a friend exodus to Facebook, I found it useful for listening to bands new songs but the excellent Spotify has usurped the site for that now.

Changes are apparently due. MySpace’s tagline used to be “A place for friends” but that has been ditched, and a (frankly, confusing) new logo is due. The new site will instead encourage users to share and recommend music, film and television content, rewarding the most prolific trendsetters with “virtual tastemaker badges”. But is it all too little, too late?
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3 comments // MySpace put on notice: make money or it's over

  • Fletchguy
    • 0
      Fletchguy  

    • The issue started when it was sold. The Newscorp took the best music promotion site and tried to turn it into a facebook type social site which users did not like. Myspace was the best and could be again if they dump the social network stress, stop designing it to look like gay face book, and go back to its roots where it originated. facebook and twitter is a place for pedophiles and stalkers so most myspace users don't use it as there really is no point as its completely different. Myspace was an individuals web presence your online home while facebook is basically an online diary for weirdos who have no friends and no personality. Hopefully myspace ceos will listen for once since they have ignored its users since the take over. get rid of the stupid fcaebook look, dump the streams let the boards on each users site become what they were and roll back the site design 5 years to when it was a place to go and share music and find new bands. Death to facebook and twitter.

    • 1 year ago
  • Punk_Rock_Kick
  • Cruzin
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