As long as we are on the topic of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, the college equivalent of MySpace, has been making noises about being up for sale, as reported in a recent Businessweek article. A comparison of the two sites reveals some interesting stuff. Like this for example:
MySpace sold for $580 million last year... Facebook is looking for about $2 Billion.
Quite a markup. That's more than a 3X increase in the pricetag. So what makes Facebook so much more valuable? Does it have more page views?
No. While there are no definitive statistics available, we can look to companies like Alexa or ComScore to give us some idea. According to ComScore, MySpace gets 4X as many pageturns as Facebook. According to Alexa, it is even more dramatic. Myspace has more than 10X as many pageturns and 6X as many visitors.
So who would be crazy enough to buy Facebook at these inflated prices? Sumner Redstone. Not to be outdone by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, who bought MySpace last year, media mogul Sumner Redstone's Viacom is rumored to be eyeing the bait.
I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens, but if it happens then it will be confirmed: Rupert Murdoch got the deal of the century when he bought Myspace.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Friday, March 10, 2006
MySpace... Taking Over the World
Traffic Rank Graph
Myspace has been in the news quite a bit lately, and for good reason. It has grown into a massive online phenomenon in just a little over 2 years. Take a look at this traffic graph and you can see its meteoric rise from absolute obscurity to Web powerhouse, ranking as one of the 10 most popular sites on the planet.
No, that's not a typo. Myspace.com is ranked inside the top 10 sites globally.
That's amazing stuff. But even more amazing is that we, and by "we" I mean most people reading this blog, had never heard of it until recently. Where did it come from?
If you go to MySpace, you will probably walk away with the impression that it is a joke... some kind of junkyard of personal pictures, blogs and random stuff clumsily plopped onto the Web. And, unless you are a studious observer of the Alexa Traffic Rankings, you would almost certainly walk away with the impression that it is no big shakes. But you would be dead-wrong.
So, how did MySpace get so popular? Kids. MySpace has tapped into a previously ignored market -- a market much more active than previously assumed. Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp must have run the numbers and saw a gold mine. They bought Myspace for $580 Million back in July of 2005.
I overheard somebody say that myspace.com actually has more page views per day than Google. I couldn't believe it. If that were the case, then myspace would have to be worth billions... with a "b". Turns out it wasn't true. A quick check of Alexa's PageViews graph comparing the two reveals that myspace gets a little more than 50% of the pageviews of Google.
PageViews Graph
I think the lesson here is not to discount the kids. They will become the prime Internet demographic in the years to come and they will determine what's hot and what's not. Just like with soda, music and movies, the marketing dollars are more interested in my kids than me... and judging from MySpace, the marketers may be right. The kids are a major force on the Web.
MySpace - myspace.com - site info
Comments
No, that's not a typo. Myspace.com is ranked inside the top 10 sites globally.
That's amazing stuff. But even more amazing is that we, and by "we" I mean most people reading this blog, had never heard of it until recently. Where did it come from?
If you go to MySpace, you will probably walk away with the impression that it is a joke... some kind of junkyard of personal pictures, blogs and random stuff clumsily plopped onto the Web. And, unless you are a studious observer of the Alexa Traffic Rankings, you would almost certainly walk away with the impression that it is no big shakes. But you would be dead-wrong.
So, how did MySpace get so popular? Kids. MySpace has tapped into a previously ignored market -- a market much more active than previously assumed. Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp must have run the numbers and saw a gold mine. They bought Myspace for $580 Million back in July of 2005.
I overheard somebody say that myspace.com actually has more page views per day than Google. I couldn't believe it. If that were the case, then myspace would have to be worth billions... with a "b". Turns out it wasn't true. A quick check of Alexa's PageViews graph comparing the two reveals that myspace gets a little more than 50% of the pageviews of Google.
PageViews Graph
I think the lesson here is not to discount the kids. They will become the prime Internet demographic in the years to come and they will determine what's hot and what's not. Just like with soda, music and movies, the marketing dollars are more interested in my kids than me... and judging from MySpace, the marketers may be right. The kids are a major force on the Web.
MySpace - myspace.com - site info
Comments
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