Companies Look To Cash In On The MySpace Economy

from the strong-growth,-no-inflation dept

Tue, Apr 11th 2006 11:10am — Joseph Weisenthal

There's been much made of the fact that winning products have the ability to spawn other industries, like every Adsense-driven web startup, all the peripherals for the iPod, and the various businesses of the eBay economy. Not surprisingly, the same is now happening with MySpace, as smaller companies look to profit from the popular site. Some are selling tools that help users improve their page's visual design. Others are helping to make MySpace more manageable, with tools to organize a friend list. It's a testament to the site's structure that third parties can develop products to make it work better, a sharp contrast to Friendster, whereby the user is at the mercy of the company to roll out improvements. Businesses are also learning what bands have known for some time, that MySpace pages can be a good way to connect with fans or customers. Of course while many are trying to get in on the MySpace gravy train, there are some risks. It's a risk to have one's fortunes tied with a company that could lose popularity when the next big thing comes along. There's also the possibility that MySpace itself will offer the same service to its customers, and block competitors. They already tried to do this with YouTube, blocking it briefly in hoping to boost their own service. Now how long before these third-party businesses start getting large buyout offers? Oh wait, that's happening too.

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15 Comments

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anonymous coward, 11 Apr 2006 @ 12:43pm

How I cashed in on MySpace!
I started a therapy service for sexually abused teens! check it out at www.igotrapedonmyspace.com
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Adam Singer, 11 Apr 2006 @ 1:04pm

I'm sorry but...
I still don’t understand this website. There is really no point to this site at all - not only is the site design poor, the server is slow and almost every single profile I browsed broke even the most basic rules of web design (things I knew before I even created a website). This is the lowest common denominator of the Internet – truly the greatest online cesspool in existence.

The bottom line is – that website is just about the most unprofessional, unorganized thing going on the web, and is bringing together the young demographic that marketers dream about. Maybe that is MySpace’s main function – herd the cattle together so they can be sold homogenized products in a place where they’re voluntary prisoners.

No surprises at all people are taking advantage of this disorganized mess of a social network...
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pOO bRAIN, 11 Apr 2006 @ 1:12pm

cesspool
And this "lowest common denominator of the internet... cesspool..." is different from every day high school how?

MySpace = High School without the books!

BTW... I met your sister on MySpace...
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Steve Duffy, 11 Apr 2006 @ 1:30pm

You just don't understand...
I read a great article by a girl getting her Ph.D. called Identitiy Production in a Networked Culture, Why Teens Heart MySpace. It is very astute in its perceptions that the virtual space MySpace offers is one of the few "uncontrolled" places a teen can go. No parents, no authorities, no teacher, and yes no books or dirty looks. When we have removed all the real spaces teens can congregate, it is good to know that they can go somewhere to be themselves. Remember what it was like for you?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Apr 2006 @ 2:12pm

Making money on mySpace
I saw this great scam on mySpace the other day. Someone sent me a friend's request with an unbelievably hot woman for the profile pic. If you went to their profile, there was almost no info on it at all. When you start reading, they say that have a profile on another site and to click the link below. The link takes you to an angelfire page which redicts you to adultfriendfinder.com to some promo URL. LOL somebody is making some money driving horny male teenagers to that site. I sent them a message to ask how much they were making, but they didn't respond :(
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Apr 2006 @ 2:16pm

Re: You just don't understand...
except that teachers, administrators, law enforcement and parents can easily get onto myspace with an email address and the patience to make a profile in thirty seconds.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Apr 2006 @ 2:21pm

typo... "degign." should be design. Maintaining an account just seems to be one of the most colossal wastes of time, second only to reading tech related news and comment websites :-P
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all ears, 11 Apr 2006 @ 3:03pm

Re:
and you are doing what?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Apr 2006 @ 3:26pm

even the emos have a place to lose money on myspac
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=61592751

thats all i have to say on that one
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BMR777, 11 Apr 2006 @ 3:29pm

Remember the early days of the internet?
Anyone remember a time before sites like MySpace and Blogger, where you actually needed to know how to code HTML to get a page on the internet?

Nowadays anyone who wants to be online can be, and now every idiot who wants their own website online but is too lazy or stupid to put decent content into it can have their own flashy MySpace Page with a gagillion sounds and videos and ads up the a$$!!

You also have to admire those entrepreneurs who have the MySpace Code Generators online and then they slip their AdWords code into the profile. Anything for a quick buck.

MySpace's day of recogning is coming! It must either change or it will eventually be doomed. How many news stories will parents and the American public tolerate that involve sexual assult on MySpace?

127.0.0.1 myspace.com
:-)

BMR777
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Nismoto, 11 Apr 2006 @ 4:58pm

Re: Re: You just don't understand...
And your point is...

Profiles can be made private.
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TheMighty72, 11 Apr 2006 @ 5:44pm

Re: I'm sorry but...
Ain't jealousy a bitch?
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Robert, 11 Apr 2006 @ 6:29pm

It's not about design
These kids don't care about design. They just wanna get as many friends as possible, meet girls, find new bands, etc.

Myspace has so many diffrent angles it's sick. Any kid under 25 is on there or will be soon. I, for one, applaud the idea, and more importantly, Myspace's execution of the idea.

Yes this opens the door for horror stories and spam. But does this create that, or is it just something that is becoming commonplace on the net. Before myspace it was yahoo, msn, aol. The kids still got obducted and as long as there is no way or will to police it, it will happen. It went on before the net.

Of course you would think with all the revenue the site itself generates you could allocate another 10+ servers to the cause and get it mirrored better so that it could actually handle the bandwidth.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 7:42am

ur a asshole
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Marc, 18 Sep 2006 @ 9:35pm

Using MySpace for small businesses
Anyone know anything about posting a page on MySpace to promote your company?

Please let me know. It seems like this is the wave of the future to get the word out there.

Thanks

Marc
www.hotelmanagementintl.com
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