The Downfall of MySpace

I was reading an article the other evening from this past issue of BusinessWeek and the issue contained a lengthy review of exactly how MySpace ended up in the position they are currently facing. Among the areas mentioned within the article, I was extremely surprised to find that many of the early problems MySpace encountered dealt with technology. Rather than placing greater efforts towards other dire departments, MySpace continued to work tirelessly to achieve new levels of applications for its users, such as video uploads, music players, and profile schemes. During this period, however, rival companies, such as Facebook, began to simply pay outside providers for the creation of those applications - much of their force was then focused on tactics to gain market share and capture unsatisfied users from MySpace. Granted there were other traps MySpace fell into, negative public perception being among them, but this early inability to keep up with other rivals focusing on stronger security measures for their sites appears to have cost them dearly. Soon after, other more damaging perceptions began to injure MySpace's legitimacy. Ultimately, their numbers began to slide and even now the owning company views the site as an "eyesore". Perhaps, MySpace will climb out of this very deep hole. Regardless of their fate, I was still shocked at the lack of vision when it came down to technology and the extreme role it played in MySpace's eventual demise.


http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_27/b4235053917570.htm