If there was ever any doubt that competition is a good thing, witness the case of MySpace. The social networking site has been on a tear recently, signing partnerships with the likes of Skype and AOL, and expanding into new avenues such as OpenSocial and, more recently, “quarterlife.” As a result, its traffic — despite stiff competition from babe-of-the-moment, Facebook — has kept on going up, at least in the U.S.
According to comScore, MySpace added 3.5 million unique visitors in October, a roughly 5 percent increase, bringing its total to 72 million. Facebook saw the number of visitors rise by 8 percent, putting its total at about 33 million. This battle between the two social networking giants isn’t over yet!
8 comments so far
10:03 AM PT
Om–
While there are glaring exceptions, increased competition generally bodes well for consumers with positive innovations, new services, and improved capabilities. Let’s hope social networking follows that trend.
Would you care to comment on the merits and perils of targeted advertising on social networking sites? I mentioned it last week at http://blog.actionm.com/2007/11/whats-the-probl.html. Your thoughts?
Thank you.
10:29 AM PT
Om, what are your thoughts on Bebo’s Open Media launch today? Seems to be more a Hulu competitor than a direct response to anything Facebook or Myspace are doing:
http://www.bebo.com/OpenMedia.jsp
They’ve lined up a pretty impressive list of partners, including CBS and the BBC.
11:21 AM PT
Does anyone know if MySpace still plans on launching their own platform? I’m seeing conflicting reports. Initially, it sounded like they were going to do their own platform in addition to OpenSocial. Has anyone read any additional information.
Also, is there any data that shows how many of those 3.5 million are unique to MySpace? It would be interesting to see how that number has grown. The idea of one being better than another could be irrelevant. Consumers may use them both realizing that each service may fulfill different needs for the consumer.
1:09 PM PT
And both of them (facebook and myspace) are useless. Just two huge time-whasters.
3:36 PM PT
Wil,
as per your request, just posted my piece on Bebo! have a look and lets talk there :-)
2:22 AM PT
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