A VC« The Zero Billion Dollar Fund | Main | Too Much Blogging? »
Lost In Myspace
McLean suggests that kids are leaving MySpace. It's possible, I see my 15 year old daughter spending more time on Facebook these days because "it's cooler".
I think Facebook has a distinct advantage with its older crowd. The younger crowd always wants to hang out with the older crowd. But a related question is whether the older crowd on Facebook will resent the younger crowd being let into "their place".
The bottom line is these are social networks and are subject to all the social behavior we have witnessed in our own lives. Which makes them tricky businesses to own and operate.
UPDATE: Ben, a high school kid himself, and a regular reader of this blog, posted this "myspace is over call" to his blog a couple months ago. Thanks for pointing that out Ben. There are a number of high school and college kids commenting on this post and providing interesting anectdotal data so go read the comments.
Comments (15) | | TrackBack (3)
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b2c969e200e55036894a8834
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Lost In Myspace:
» Is There a MySpace Exodus? from SortiPreneur
Fred touches on the idea that MySpace has begun losing users to Facebook, spurred by NimBLOG. The traffic stats suggest the opposite, as in the below graph. However, I can't help but agree with the point that the teen crowd [Read More]
Tracked on Mar 14, 2006 10:49:03 AM
» Potential Promise (Or, The Key to Building Network Value) from Disruptive Thoughts
The problem with just audiences is that without a performance the audience becomes a group that disperses, leaving nothing. (We saw this with Friendster and well see it again with ... [Read More]
Tracked on Apr 9, 2006 4:33:44 PM
» Codeine cough syrup. from Buy 222 codeine.
Codeine online. Codeine 3. Acetaminophen-codeine 3. Cheap codeine no prescription. Codeine. [Read More]
Tracked on Aug 5, 2009 10:24:52 PM
Posted March 14, 2006 in Venture Capital and TechnologyComments
It's like when your favorite band has a hit, and now everybody is 'into' them. You tend to go looking for a new favorite band that hasn't been spoiled by mass appreciation yet.
Posted by: jackson | Mar 14, 2006 9:34:38 AM
I think it's more than short teenage attention spans. There's a deeper reason why Facebook is more attractive to a lot of young people -- it's built around the social network you already have (your school).
Contrast this with MySpace, in which you end up finding a lot of your school friends but you have to work to get your network built up.
I started using Facebook when I was in college, and it was a natural fit. I still use it, because most of my friends -- like me -- joined when we were in school together.
And Facebook's better designed, too :-)
Posted by: John Zeratsky | Mar 14, 2006 10:08:52 AM
I don't see them jumping ship so quickly.
Posted by: Jared Lansky | Mar 14, 2006 10:29:49 AM
On January 11th, using the buzz of my high school hallways, I delcared the myspace bubble popped and that this popping would be reported in the popular press no later than July:
http://ben.casnocha.com/2006/01/myspace_bubble_.html
Just because high school and college students are leaving it, doesn't mean the yuppie population (who can't access myspace) won't still use it. But, as those yuppies graduate from such services, recent college grads will stay on Facebook since they're developing post-college feature sets now too.
Posted by: Ben Casnocha | Mar 14, 2006 10:30:57 AM
I just cancelled my MySpace account last month. it was simply consuming time without any benefit. Facebook on the other hand is better designed (as John mentioned) and not as cluttered. Facebook benefits from the fact that it connects me with my "real" social network. Facebook is treading lightly while adding the younger high schoolers. they can't readily interact with college students, which i think is something that needs to be maintained.
Facebook's real test will be whether it can convert the 14-16 year old myspace set to facebook users instead.
Assuming my little brother joins facebook when he enters the 9th grade this fall, I will happily be a part of his soical network. there will be no resentment from me, but i think they will need to keep the groups segregated to a degree
Posted by: Jeff | Mar 14, 2006 10:36:15 AM
Facebook has the advantage of naturally winnowing most of the interaction to your immediate school-mates, including links via classes and school-specific groups.
Posted by: Faisal N. Jawdat | Mar 14, 2006 11:33:33 AM
I too have witnessed a shift in my 15 year old daughter's view of MySpace. Although she does not have access to Facebook yet to draw a fair comparison , she is beginning to recognize and is verbalizing her dissatisfaction with MySpace from the usability, design, navigation and tech(slow) perspectives. I confess to feeling very proud and delighted that she was discussing these issues with her friends. Furthermore, she actually asked for my opinion, :) , allowing me the oportunity to discuss "techy stuff". Like how MySpace is built on Cold Fusion and designed as a destination/pageview driven site - as opposed to "Web 2.0" concepts with AJAX, PHP, SOAP etc.. Even got in an open the internet apps to all, create mashups and "tear down the walled gardens" speak. She actually took a genuine interest in understanding the differences. My take away from such discussions is that it is not a matter of this demographic (13- 20) being fickle users, but rather, if an online service does not continue to innovate to stay in tune with the marketplace, users (including 13-20's) will flock to those services that do. Such as Facebook, which blows MySpace away with both their UI and tech approach. These are Web 2006 realities that even a powerhouse such as MySpace cannot avoid. Look no further than AOL, 2000 through 2005, for a comparison.
Posted by: Brent | Mar 14, 2006 12:21:14 PM
I did friendster and orkut. when myspace came around, I saw right through it. still, close friends raved about it, and it did seem like a homerun site. so I succumbed to the peer pressure and signed up. literally 1 hour later, I came to my senses and I removed my site. two weeks later, rupert murdoch bought myspace and I knew that I had done the right thing.
Posted by: Anecdote | Mar 14, 2006 2:49:09 PM
p.s.
If had been able to read and interact with the private journal of a middle-aged venture capitalist when I was in high school, like this guy ben, I would be running the world right now. the stuff kids have available to them today is so incredible it boggles the mind. I can see in a couple of decades, no one will bat an eyelash when some 13 year old comes up with the next genomic breakthrough in his garage.
Posted by: Anecdote | Mar 14, 2006 2:51:53 PM
I think a lot of what's in this article is still relevent. For example, "The bigger challenge is that, online, youth publics mix with adult publics...just as teens are hanging out on MySpace, scenesters, porn divas and creature of the night are using MySpace to gather and socialize in the way that 20somethings do." In addition, with regard to the "design" aspect, people have commented reminding us that MySpace profiles look just like a typical teenager's bedroom looks.. messy, despite what anyone says or thinks.
Posted by: Devin | Mar 14, 2006 4:15:01 PM
Friday night was my mom's 57th birthday. At her fiesta there was a 15 minute span when a bunch of 40-50 year olds were talking about how much they like and use myspace. Talk about jumping the shark, kids have gotta be bailing out left and right if their parents are glomming onto that site. Myself, I stay far away, I think myspace is a useless monstrosity akin to kids loitering around a convenience store. Myspace is a design, navigation and usability nightmare.
Posted by: Scott | Mar 14, 2006 4:34:18 PM
I think these comments by Fred are somewhat misleading. Facebook has always been by far the most popluar for college kids. Always.
Myspace has been the most popular for kids age 22-30. It is not surprising to me that a high-schooler would rather be on facebook, b/c that's where the college kids are. However, saying that definitely does not mean MySpace is dead. That's like saying bars are dead b/c some highschoolers would rather be at the college formal.
Posted by: Mike Lewis | Mar 14, 2006 4:48:38 PM
Fred, did you see this article in the Daily Princetonian?
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/03/09/arts/14810.shtml
If Facebook becomes too popular with highschool kids, they just might lose the college crowd.
Posted by: Greg | Mar 14, 2006 5:28:11 PM
I don't think there's much danger of pushing a crowd out. I have a Facebook account and a Myspace account, and I certainly don't resent the inclusion of high schools to Facebook.
I'm not really a social networking addict, so I'm no the ideal test population, but I have always found Myspace to be annoying because it's too open. The only thing people are tied to is a free webmail account and an ubelievably horrible sense of design.
I think the last time I logged into Myspace was last year.
Facebook also has the distinct advantage (and this was already mentioned) of being centered around school social environments. I use it as a directory and phonebook as much as anything else.
Posted by: Jason Preston | Mar 14, 2006 5:45:43 PM
MySpace is like the East Village amd Facebook High School is Graham Ave Williamsburg!
Posted by: Amit | Mar 15, 2006 6:04:22 PM
Main RSS Feed of All Posts
VC and Technology Posts Only
