And What of MySpace?

For all the talk about Facebook this and Facebook that, there hasn’t been a lot of attention paid to MySpace recently.

It would be easy to get the impression that MySpace could be in danger of becoming the next Friendster given it’s been so rudely thrust out of the social networking spotlight. But that would probably be the wrong assumption given MySpace had 178.8 million unique visitors in June compared with Facebook’s 70.4 million. (Note: MySpace had 3% year-over-year growth while Facebook’s was 35%)

So what is going on with MySpace?

It is losing its users/mojo given Facebook seems to becoming the place for people to gather? I hear so little buzz about MySpace these days that it’s hard not to wonder if the MySpace party is over then. When I ask people about MySpace, a common comment is MySpace is the place where bands have to be, which could suggest MySpace may be headed back to its roots as a music-focused service.

Truth be told, MySpace is doing just fine – at least for now. News Corp. recently reported that MySpace generated more than $500-million of revenue for the year ended June 30, and it could do about $800-million in fiscal 2008. And according to eMarketer, the global social networking advertising market is expected to expand by about 60% in 2008 to $1.9-billion.

So rather than being concerned about MySpace and the threat of Facebook, it appears MySpace is doing just fine as the social networking market (users, unique visitors, advertising revenue, etc.) continues to grow. A rising tide lifts all boats so it looks like smooth sailing ahead for the MySpace.

Note: Speaking of numbers, ComScore has come out with its July stats package, which showed Facebook had 30.5 million unique visitors in July while Fox Interactive Media had 81.2 million.

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