What happened to MySpace?

Just recently I was thinking, What happened to MySpace? Why is Facebook more popular? I remember that MySpace was really fun at first, somewhat addictive, but then again I was younger! I really liked to design my own page, and I loved the artistic freedom of MySpace but I am also somewhat html and css fluent. But, when did I get bored with it? Feels like years ago!. I wanted to investigate why MySpace failed and why Facebook is much more popular. Obviously, peoples interests change and people grow, but is the same thing going to happen to other social media networks or is it the companies fault for not keeping its followers interested. Turns out, MySpace is not completely kaput- but is it making a comeback? Doubt it.

I am sure that most people have heard in the news that Myspace sold for 35 Million dollars to a company called Specific Media. And one of my favorite celebrities, musicians and actors Justin Timberlake has taken a crucial role in the companies creative direction and strategy. As much as like Justin Timberlake, I am not sure he can bring MySpace back to life? I guess we will have to wait and see.

I did a little research to find out why MySpace has lost its hype.
Lack of loyalty to users: The site was catered to teens who could communicate with friends and write on each others walls but failed to progress as the teens grew older and failed to keep up with the changing times. The then-teens migrated to Facebook. The company failed to keep up with the ever changing demographic of its users.
Not enough innovation: Facebook is pretty simple to operate and is constantly adapting to users, friends, links, games etc. MySpace failed to innovate new ways of design, and usability for its members. Even now MySpace still is slow to innovate and operating roughly the same way in the past five years.
More focus on the future: MySpace focused more on profits and less on future implications. Facebook in the early years made more improvements for users, and constant improvements and focused less on profits which ultimately was sucessful.
Usability: MySpace was technically challenging for many of its users. Whereas Facebook is much simpler and does not require much technical background knowledge for page design. This could have been a feature that MySpace put too much focus on and deterred users.

I found a couple of things that seemed to be important that MySpace did not pick up on.
1. Third party applications are used by Facebook and help the site with new ideas and features.
2. MySpace focused too much on advertising, whereas Facebook  uses advertising in more subtle ways and incorporates advertising in a less drastic way than MySpace had done in the past.

 I found a really good article that quoted Wayne Gretsky, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."  This quote is explaining how Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg have aspirational clarity and can plan for the future and cater to the market.


References:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43581327/ns/business-us_business/t/justin-timberlake-part-group-buying-myspace/
http://www.fastcompany.com/1764384/why-did-myspace-fail-are-you-listening-microsoft-yahoo-aol-and-cisco
http://doteduguru.com/id3701-social-network-failure-what-happened-to-myspace.html