1. Team Outliers: Josel Cates, Danielle Ross, Vince Tam, Lulu Xu
Case Study: MySpace
Team Outliers: Josel Cates, Danielle Ross, Vince Tam, Lulu Xu

2. BACKGROUND
MySpace launched in Jan and by July had 90 million users
Decline thereafter, possibly because of Facebook's introduction
With the launch of Facebook platform, amount of users increased by 15% in just one month

3. PROS
Users design pages
Initially, users could connect with whomever
Bands, celebrities, "entity" pages
Acquisition by News Corp for $580 M, targeted advertisers more directly
Older users
Easy-to-use interface which allowed developers to build programs for integration in Facebook
More private than MySpace
Private company, only Microsoft bought minority stake for $240 M
CONS
Customized profiles can be unaesthetic and slow to load
Controversies over teenager safety and online bullying
Pressure to include excessive ads on user profiles due to the Google deal
Acquisition by News Corp created culture clash
Existing major competitor - MySpace
Users have less control over the design of their personal profiles
Introduction of Beacon drew controversy

4. RECOMMENDATION
MySpace should decide to launch their own developer program
Why?
Pros vs. cons for 2 options
Join Google's OpenSocial
Launch MySpace's Own Developer Platform
Internet stats and financial data

5. OPTION 1: JOIN GOOGLE'S OPENSOCIAL
PROS
Ability to match Facebook Platform quickly
No expense or major investment
CONS
Huge uncertainty
At this point in time, Google was not a leader in any online services categories
Lack of application exclusivity
MySpace competitors can utilize same applications
Inability to extract payments from developers due to lack of differentiation between social networks

6. OPTION 2: LAUNCH MYSPACE’S OWN PLATFORM
PROS
Ability to compete directly with Facebook
More control over timing and design of the platform
Easier to extract payments from the application providers
Will work better to increase site traffic
Attract more advertisers
Satisfy minimum traffic level required by the deal with Google
CONS
More costly than joining OpenSocial

7. Exhibit 2: Unique monthly visitors increasing at a faster rate for Facebook than MySpace

8. Exhibit 4: By Nov. 2007, Facebook users viewing more pages per visit than Myspace, which drives impressions for advertisers and increases revenue for Facebook, so Myspace should mirror Facebook's model

9. Exhibit 5: Average length of stay per visit declined from 28 to 24 minutes for Myspace, so need to keep applications unique in order to keep users on MySpace to drive ad revenue

10. Exhibit 6: Internet content spending has increased most rapidly for entertainment categories, so it is most important to develop the entertainment aspects of MySpace, like apps