MySpace. What The F@$&K For?

MySpace is a bit of an enigma to me. Widely popular, growing in size, ad dollars being thrown at it, yet...what is its purpose? My buddy Dave is mystified by MySpace, as he calls it " A poorly coded site" that reminds him of the early 90's. I will admit I got on to MySpace and spent some time on their building up my "friends list" and checking out bands etc etc. Then as time passed I started to realize something. This site has absolutely no purpose. What can I do on it except be some sort of online voyeur into other peoples meaningless pics and comments. If I want to communicate to a friend I will email/MSN/ or get this, call them. If I want to check out a band I will go to their website. I can learn, see and do more by surfing the pages of YouTube and Wikipedia. MySpace just offers me nothing. Even peoples personal blogs have more meaning and interest due to the fact there is more thought and personal story telling into peoples ideas on blogs. MySpace offers you small "text-bites" and sound bites. And to add to the mystery of MySpace it's growing into a marketers dream with ad dollars people set aside for crafty corporate pages. Maybe this was the point all along.

Recently I came across this interesting article on iwantmedia.com. It is a post on the website valleywag.com and is written by Trent Lapinski. It seems Trent has been doing some research into the business model of MySpace and the websites origins. He come's across some interesting facts and is now published on Vallywag even though he is being threatened by News Corp. with a lawsuit.

What's all the stink about? According to Trent he came across some interesting business practices and details about MySpace people may not know. Such as the following:

" What News Corp. doesn't want you to know about MySpace

1. MySpace is NOT a viral success. MySpace was advertised on mass levels to reach the public. MySpace was created by a company named eUniverse (who later changed their name to Intermix Media). eUniverse was a marketing and entertainment company who had over 50 million e-mail addresses in their databases, as well as over 18 million monthly web users. eUniverse leveraged their resources to proliferate and advertise MySpace.com. eUniverse went as far as telling 3 million users of their paid dating website, CupidJunction.com, to sign up for free MySpace accounts. (CupidJunction message screenshot)

2. MySpace.com is Spam 2.0. MySpace has spawned an incredibly successful twist on the age-old art of self-promotion, allowing--even encouraging--the marketing of everything from bands to businesses on their site. Essentially, they've opened up a channel through which to solicit and promote everyone and everything, most importantly the individual. The whole site is, in essence, a marketing tool that everyone who registers has access to. Users constantly receive spam-like messages from said bands, business, and individuals looking to add more "friends" (and therefore more potential fans, consumers, or witnesses) to their online identity. A testament to this strange new social paradigm is the phrase "Thanks for the Add," a nicety offered when one MySpace user adds another as a friend. Best yet, to use the site, members must log in, causing them to inadvertently view advertisements, and then read their messages on a page with even more advertisements. In the world of MySpace, Spam is earth, air, fire, and water.

3. Tom Anderson did NOT create MySpace. Most users don't know that Tom Anderson (pictured) is more of a PR scheme than anything else--the mascot designed to give a friendlier feel to a site created by a marketing company known for viral entertainment websites, pop-up advertising, spam, spyware, and adware. As MySpace's popularity grew, the MySpace team moved to create a false PR story that would best reflect the ideals and tastes of its growing demographic. They wanted to prevent the revelation that a Spam 1.0 company had launched the site, and created the impression that Tom Anderson created the site, and the lie worked. According to Anderson, the bulk of his initial contribution is as follows: "I am as anti-social as they come, and I've already got 20 people to sign up."

4. MySpace's CEO Chris DeWolfe is connected to a past of spam and shady business associates and brought those connections to eUniverse/MySpace (see full edition for details).

5. MySpace was a direct assault on Friendster.com. The major key players in the ultimate development of MySpace have Friendster accounts, and name Friendster and its founder in their original business proposal. The current CEO of MySpace, Chris DeWolfe has been a member of Friendster since June of 2003 (MySpace was not conceived until August of 2003). "

The above was taken directly from the Vallywag site at:
www.valleywag.com/tech/myspace/what-news-corp-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-myspace

I would love to read the full article. My opinion is not fully made up on this yet as I would like to know more. But I just had to share it. Read the user comments on the article as well, they give some good debate and other insight to Trent's "thoughts & findings". There are some things I don't fully agree with such as MySpace not being a viral success. Personally I think it is and its current amount of members will prove that. And the point that MySpace was created soley as a marketing tool seems some what moot since most web pages are created to make money one way or another. The fact that's a giant ad billboard disguised as a social hangout (or vise versa) should be no surprise to anyone. And anyone who feel sthat MySpace is really their space and not for advertising needs open their eyes just a bit more.