Filed under: entertainment, music, new media/technology | Tags: Bebo, Facebook, Google, Marketing, Mars Planets Radio, MySpace, MySpace Records, Yahoo!
Now lagging behind Facebook and Bebo, MySpace is crying out for a strategy rejig – Marketing magazine reports…
MySpace launched in the UK in 2006, having already established itself in the US market, targeting the 16- to 34-year-old music fans it believed were gold dust to advertisers.
Aimed at an older audience than rival Bebo, the News Corp-owned social networking site positioned itself as a free and open community of music producers and fans, and even launched an independent record label, MySpace Records, to develop artists. The site had a meteoric rise in its early years, becoming the most-visited in the US – overtaking Yahoo! and Google – in 2006.
MySpace has become a victim of its own success, however. In an attempt to get back to its start-up roots, it is cut-ting its ‘bloated’ staff numbers, making 100 redundancies in the UK alone.
Despite its best efforts to persuade brands that a third of social network users will click through to buy services, advertising partnerships have also been harder to come by this year. Mars terminated its title sponsorship of Mars Planets Radio, for which MySpace says it is now seeking a replacement. Its deal with Google, which provides search and advertising on MySpace, is also set to expire in 2010.
Now trailing behind Facebook and Bebo, with Hitwise figures showing UK visits to MySpace have dropped by 50% in the past year, the pressure is on to make some major changes.
To see the full article and comment from Ross Taylor, Tullo Marshall Warren’s chief digital officer, and Jens Bachem, managing director of Digital Outlook click here.
(source: marketingmagazine.co.uk)
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