Web Entrepreneur William Kasel

This article in Fast Company examines the changes occurring at MySpace, and this is my response.

It can be duly noted I obviously favor Facebook over MySpace, but those that we favor do not necessarily have the best chance at winning, kinda like when Gore ran against Bush. Not saying Facebook is going to run off and win the Nobel Peace Prize, because helping horny college students hookup is far from the guidelines to win a Nobel Peace

Facebook has obviously stolen the spotlight recently making it incredibly more difficult for MySpace to compete, even if it had some great features — which it doesn’t. But — what it does have is a revenue model, one the likes of which, Zuckerberg would kill to have. Thats right, MySpace is profitable, whereas Facebook seems pathetic to even compare the figures, $150,000,000 <Facebook> to $1,000,000,000+ <MySpace>.

With that kind of revenue one would think MySpace would simply dominate, and yes while they have over 250,000,000 users Facebook is the largest, and most active social network in the world. We all know why this is obviously, the perfect concution of everything. The Developers Platform is a marvel, simply amazing really. And, while it has been watered down with utter garbage it is still a very strong asset. Now, the Open Social platform on the other hand is simply a wreck. I work with it, but man does it need some work. I cant help but feel it was hacked together by a small team of people in some dark window-less office somewhere in Mountain View.

There are a few very possible reasons users seemed to adopt Facebook over MySpace, but the major one is a two syllable word — STREAMLINE. It is 100x easier to navigate, search, and in general use. It seems to me that MySpace is busy making money, Facebook is busy developing the user experience. SMART MOVE. It seems to be their real strength in wooing the myspace userbase to abandon the archaic platform of MySpace.

Ive heard rumours of a new MySpace redesign, but if it anything like their recent attempts, it will fall, and fall very hard.

Another thing Myspace has going for it is the loyal music base. Nothing has really come along that can challenge that. Imeem is doing its damndest, but may need a little more time, and funding. Facebook currently has didily squat for musicians besides ilike, which is a cool utility, but it really isn’t a competitor in the market for the needs of musicians. When Facebook can figure out how to taylor to musicians it will be much better off. That is just my 2 cents.

So take this all into account, a streamlined user experience, a great tool for musicians. and a better platform (more integratable, less hacked), and the better revenue model, that will decide our victor.

Social Media is obviously the driving force behind web 2.0, and how much better of a way to embrace social content than to open your site to developers? It goes back to the original Fast Company article on Ning, and the Viral Expansion Loop. Get members of the social graph to make something, that makes the parent node to the other nodes (people). Obviously, Facebook did this with their developers platform, and It has paid off well for them, and been highly embraced.

I have always been, and still remain the biggest proponent of the the developers platform, but it seems like the buzz is dying, and the community is being filled with garbage — usually clones, and over-simplified apps. One suggestion, and one that I always believed in, was the social graph allows good things to bubble to the top, in sort of a democratic way. But, think about first mover advantage, with companies such as RockYou, and Slide. They were able to jump in before there were anti-invite groups started to shut down the application platform all together.

The simple truth is the platofrm has been abused, and Facbook is suffering. Their grand idea is slowly slipping to commonplace. What does Facebook need? I don’t know. If they start cutting apps, then there would be an uprise, but something needs to be done. I am glad to see they are cracking down on the big dogs.

Maybe facebooks new redesign will help stop the mess facebook has with the applications, but with that set to launch July 16th, I wouldn’t expect much.