Assumptions and failures

The Fall of Myspace

Imagine we are back in 2004.

You’ve just finished hanging out with your friends and the first thing you do when you get home is turn on your computer to check Myspace. Yes, I’m referring to the social networking platform founded by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe.

Within a month of launch, Myspace reached a million users and within a year, this figure hit 20 million. This networking platform dominated the social space and it revolutionised how we interacted online. It gave users the power to channel their creativity by customising their profiles and allowed them to build their personal branding through photos, videos and music.

Fast forward to 2008, however, Myspace struggled to keep up with the evolving digital world and their competitor, Facebook, overtook them. Now ten years later, people still use Facebook but Myspace remains partly history (it still exists, but its intended use is now very different).

So, where did it go wrong?

Lack of innovation

• Facebook was quick to add new features that made it easier to use, whereas Myspace remained stagnant. While Facebook introduced instant messaging, Myspace was still using bulletin boards. Other features such as hosting event pages, creating business pages and playing virtual games with friends through instant messaging were not offered by Myspace.
• The change was slow for Myspace and this resulted from management. As mentioned by Anderson, after Myspace was acquired by News Corp, all product changes had to go through a process of review and soon became a bottleneck of getting things done.
• As a result, Facebook was constantly updating and introducing new features while Myspace stayed relatively the same.

And then too much innovation

• By the time Myspace acknowledged Facebook’s success and attempted to replicate its marketing strategy and design, it was too late.
• In fact, it tried to make up for its lack of innovation by introducing a lot of new features altogether such as a video player, music player, karaoke machine, etc. Ultimately, the in-house product team found it difficult to keep up, and they weren’t able to build, test and iterate fast enough.
• For this reason, a lot of the features were filled with bugs and unusable, rendering them useless.

Inconsistent branding

• Unable to keep up with Facebook, Myspace rebranded itself as a music platform rather than a social media networking site. Essentially, this decision meant Myspace had to change their market completely and target a new audience.
• Due to these changes, Myspace went through constant redesign changes which further confused and frustrated its user base. By not maximising user-driven wants, Myspace failed to retain its membership — over 50% of its users left Myspace in 2010 because of its rebranding.
• One of the biggest mistakes Myspace made was not having a clear idea of who it wanted to be as a brand and consequently, they didn’t know who its target audience was and how to cater for their needs.

Overall, the ultimate fall to Myspace was its shift in focus from being a social networking platform to a music platform. The lack of innovation was further exacerbated by Facebook’s continuous improvement to the overall social networking experience.