MySpace Case (Andrea)

1. Does Facebook pose a substantial threat to MySpace?
Definitely, I think Facebook is a strong competitor of My Space. For one Facebook provides more security and privacy for user’s personal information. An employee of Facebooks security team said, “if we get a report of a bug or a hole from a user, a security researcher, a reporter, blogger, or anyone, we check it out and fix it as quickly as possible.” Facebook allows members to restrict who they want to have access to their profile. MySpace has put itself in risking situations by not restricting access to profiles. Facebooks platform is also known to be a bit more professional and those who use it are usually higher class and educated. The communities that can be created create a place for people of the same entity which I think is a strength of Facebook. Another, strength of Facebook is its joining with Microsoft to help its advertising. A weakness of MySpace is that it is heavily skewed to a teen audience unlike facebook who is used by all ages. MySpace needs to find a way to compete with Facebooks Platform that has introduced thousands of different applications. Since launching its application platform, Facebook attention has grown over 50%. Overall I think Facebook poses multiple threats to My Space due to its many new applications, the trust people have in it and advertising.

2. Should MySpace join operations or invest in its own developer platform?
The downside of joining operations with OpenSocial is the “open source” which wouldn’t allow MySpace to limit applications to its social network. They want to differentiate themselves, joining with OpenSocial would defeat this purpose. If MySpace launches their own developer platform they can control all the operations to be launched in a timely way and to directly obtain profits. With their own platform MySpace could also apply their own unique strategies and continue updating and adding additional value to its users. As an update in February 2008 MySpace launched a developer platform utilizing OpenSocial and opened up its platform to third-party application developers.