The story of MySpace?s rise and fall is one oft repeated in the world of dotcom companies. Just think, there was a time when Yahoo! was where you went if you had a query. Now, it has lost its place of dominance to Google to such an extent that the latter?s name has even become a verb, synonymous with ?search?. This shift, however, has clear reasons. Google simply developed much better, more accurate search algorithms that helped the user and advertisers alike. Social networking is another ball game entirely. Even as recently as 2008, MySpace was the leading social network, with far more users than its main rival, Facebook (at its peak in 2008, MySpace attracted nearly 80 million unique users in the US, almost double that of Facebook). According to figures for May 2011, however, Facebook pulled in 157.2 million unique users, compared to a dismal 54 million for MySpace. What changed in three years that reduced MySpace to its current predicament (Rupert Murdoch?s News Corp just sold MySpace for $35 million, after buying it for a whopping $580 million in 2005)? Looking at what the two networks have to offer, it?s clear that MySpace just wasn?t quick enough on its feet, an affliction that beset Orkut as well. It was a pioneer in social networking, allowing users to put up statuses, photos, music and videos. But it never grew from there, while Facebook just kept innovating to get ahead. Also, there is a natural ebb and flow to the Internet, which is hard to predict. Farmville on Facebook is a good example of both these points. By allowing third-party developers, like Zynga (the makers of Farmville), into Facebook, the latter managed to garner an extremely loyal following and a hugely expanded universe of applications to keep users interested. Now, Farmville?s popularity is on the decline?it?s dying a natural death?but you can be sure that something else will replace it.
MySpace?s story could serve as a valuable lesson for Google, which already failed once in the social networking sphere, with Buzz. Google has come out with Google+ now, but unless it?s quick to adapt, it?ll go the same way as many others.
