Slashdot Mirror
MySpace Loses Ten Million Users In One Month
Goldiloxx writes "Social networking website MySpace lost over ten million users between January and February 2011, according to comScore. In February 2011, the Internet website had less than 63 million users, down from a previous total of approximately 73 million."
MySpace has no change in surviving anymore. Facebook has 600+ million users and Windows Live Messenger has 330+ million users. The only larger network than those two is interestingly Chinese QQ, which has 636 million users.
I'm surprised it's not more. Facebook is at or near its apex, and will soon experience the same downward slippage. Twitter should have IPOâ(TM)d long ago, they missed the money boat.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
People must be getting richer and finding jobs since MySpace is for the economically disadvantaged while Facebook is primarily used by the fiscal elite.
"Zack Whittaker, of business technology news website ZDNet, has commented that he "would be surprised if MySpace survives the year".
Really, I'm surprised it survived this long.
It wouldn't surprise me if Facebook started to decline as well in the next few years. Most of my friends who were using the network back five or six years ago have left. It has become worse than Myspace ever was.
The World is Yours.
MySpace's Chief Executive Officer Michael Jones has claimed that the website is "no longer a social network anymore" and that it is currently a "social entertainment destination".
Allow me to translate: "Our business model is screwed, because someone else did it much better, so we're desperately trying to rebrand ourself as something else"
It's in people's nature to never give up, keep trying to the bitter end, but this is a sinking ship that cannot be saved.
I doubt they actually lost 10 million users, probably just a few thousand 50-year-old men *pretending* to be 10 million teenage girls.
Man, that must suck for Tom. Its hard to lose friends, especially 10 million of them.
Must have done some spring cleaning on there user db. Last login over 2 years ago sort of thing.
... of value was lost.
Thank goodness he bet on the wrong social network. If you think Facebook is evil now, imagine that tyrant at the wheel...
-1, Too Many Layers Of Abstraction
i knew I forgot something....
bah.
I didn't know the FBI's Pedophile Hunting Team was doing such a great job! 10 million accounts closed in a month?
oh, you mean there are other people who still use(d) MySpace? #newsToMe
so printing my myspace address on the back of a CD like I did 3 years ago was a bad idea?
crap
www.myspace.com/russbro - say hello to www.facebook.com/russbrownmusic
----------
ah honey, we're all resplendent - Bill Mallonee
anyone remember friendster?
it's my belief that social networks will rise and fall, endlessly in succession. simply because ubiquity eventually becomes a liability amongst a crowd who views exclusion and superiority to be more important. eventually, one of these smaller exclusive networks becomes the object of envy for others to be "in" that exclusive group, and the long march to ubiquity begins, until you start all over again
its an empty vapid game. its also pretty much boilerplate sociological fact. consider nightclubs in cities: the small chic "in" club that everyone wants to get into, overexposure, then decline because the "cool" kids want their own exclusive club. rinse, repeat
and no, facebook will not become ubiquitous plumbing. because they need to make money to survive. to make that money, they need to sell the personal details of their members. which is a force that will drive people from facebook as they wise up to how creepy that really is: by feeding their personal details to the machine, they are telling their abuser how to abuse them
so be on the lookout for the next friendster/ myspace/ facebook. could be diaspora. or maybe being programmed right now in some dorm room. $$$ to the chaps who start/ find the right network at the right time, and ride that rocket all the way up
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
And 62.9 Million of them are pornobots and promotional pages for crappy bands.
As if it could get any worse, now their name has underscores in it.
I started getting spam messages from bands. Maybe they tweaked something resulting in spam message increase and people are bailing.
Actually, he took the money are ran a while ago.
Thanks for reminding me to close my account!
Just shows the future of all Social Networking -
The next and 'final' social network will be an open source peer-to-peer network with commercial caching and hosting; if my plan works.
The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
So, where are they? Abducted by aliens? Can Mulder and Scully look into this? Spontaneous human combustion? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion ? Maybe they are on a small island in the Pacific, playing Pinochle ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle ) with Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison?
Question: "How do you lose ten million users? " Answer: "One customer at a time."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Does that include users who have abandoned the service?
I have a myspace account. I don't think I've updated it in 5 years.
Awesome news. I wish it had more to do with people actively looking at boycotting News Corp.
I've been working on a firefox extension to help people boycott News Corp, NBC and others: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/webcott/
Also looking at alternatives to myspace here: http://bryanquigley.com/webcott/leave-myspace-for-wordpress-com
Now that's what I call a good start! just 63 million to go!
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
I do!
(Homer Simpson): The Internet... Is that thing still around?
Interesting coincidence that the Rustock Botnet spam network was taken down and MySpace loses 10 Million accounts? I know these two events can't be connected to each other, right?
The world did not end.
Let's abandon facebook and other phantom interactions too. Pretty soon I suspect it'll be like the talking walls in F451.
You know. That thing. With the things.
Considering their new beta plan screwed up a lot of sites for bands, I think the migration numbers are not only right, but also will increase as more bands move to other social media platforms. The only reason I even think to go to Myspace is because some band has made it their landing page. If Myspace continues to be hostile to the only group that keeps it alive, they will have no choice but to go away.
I closed my Myspace account a few weeks ago, and when I filled out the online cancel account form, they sent me a 'confirmation' email stating, "Thanks for activating your Myspace.com email address!" Talk about clingy! I had to cancel again and after verifying my request in another email it finally worked. Desperate I guess...
I created a MySpace page as a joke years ago. Never went back. It seemed like a place where teenagers posted naughty pics and hooked up. The pages remined me of those horrible free web pages from Geocities.
Facebook is place where my mom would have a page and I think that an older crowd and businesses found a home there. I don't care about it either.
"In February 2011, the Internet website had less than 63 million users, down from a previous total of approximately 73 million."
Actually, I'm pretty sure it had fewer than 63 million users...
Bakersfield has no chance of surviving. New York MSA has 19 million+ residents and LA has 17 million+ residents. The only other city north of the Isthmus larger than those two is interestingly Mexico City, which has 22.8 million.
Granted that there are a lot more people who want to live in the other three. The point is, mom-n-pop stores exist despite the onslaught of the big boxes. Internet sites are probably more egalitarian.
Someone will probably pull the plug on MySpace at some point though, if only because it's an unrewarding task to downscale from corporation to personal blog. The trip up is exciting and potentially rewarding. The trip down is the domain of archivers, fans, etc. and usually the few people that want to do it can't wrest control from the corporate shell. They always want to cling on to that little last bit. They couldn't stand to see anybody make an ordinary small biz out of it, and employ just one or two people, or a small fan site hosted by a non-profit.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
...until that starts happening at Facebook.
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
You may have chosen to close your account, but they still have your data.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
you're talking about a social network protocol, like http, smtp, nntp, etc
the point is, we'd have many different internets today if it was started as different walled gardens you had to pay for. well, actually, that is the way it was: bbses, compuserve, etc. all of which died in favor of the free and the open
so end game for friendster/ myspace/ facebook is a free and open social network protocol. sntp sounds too confusingly like smtp so lets call it...
vytp
vapid yammering transfer protocol
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
It's pretty disappointing to see a supposedly geek-friendly site get a story this badly wrong. Everybody crowing about Myspace losing 10%+ of their userbase in one month is completely missing the point. Of course, other sites that got to the story first have made the exact same mistake, but they don't have the focus on tech that this site supposedly does.
Myspace didn't lose 10 million users in a month. What we're talking about isn't people canceling accounts, what we're talking about is a reduction in the number of unique IP addresses recorded in Myspace's logs for the month. Uniques are not the same thing as users -- as any self-respecting geek should know, many of those IP addresses will be single users getting dynamic IP addresses or using multiple locations (home, work, etc.) to access their account. At the same time, many other users will be behind proxy servers, or connecting from shared (public, work, etc.) locations that make multiple users all appear to be from the same IP.
Which is all to say that this number is relatively meaningless, without detailed knowledge of the other numbers that would be reported along with it.
And it's not to say Myspace aren't dead. They've been essentially dead for several years now, to be quite honest.
I closed 3 Bank of America accounts at the end of January. Zero balance. Definitely closed.
And yet... I am still getting three statements a month. I assume this is an effort to make it appear that they are not losing customers. Seems like fraud, if they are reporting those stats as part of earnings, etc.
Myspace used to have a fantastically simple interface.
Everything was placed in logically separate sections, everything was usually a click or 2 away.
Now? The interface is atrocious. Seriously. It looks like it was designed by some kid learning CSS for the first time.
Visual horizontal separations, hundreds of them. Huge amounts of white space.
Less important things are placed higher than personal things. (seriously, FUCK recommendations on websites. Youtube added that shit recently and it annoys me every single time i see that terrible sidebar since it takes up so much damn space. Worse is the crap keeps appearing. I need to userstyle that crap out of existence)
Way too much information as well. It's all fine and well if you hide information behind something, such as a simple "More >>" button, even tooltips, or stuff that only appears as you hover over the post item. (and this is coming from a programmer who tends to deal with a lot of information and data)
Not only that, they killed off one of the main things that made it popular: CUSTOM. PROFILES.
I'm all for base profiles that have basic information about a person being placed at the top of profiles.
But to remove the ability to do most of the stuff that people could do in the past is just awful.
To think I even helped testing filters and finding new exploits to get them patched so we could keep those custom profiles in addition to the header section, only for it to be ditched for this static crap.
It was one of the few places that could actually be called My Space. But now it is My Space As Myspace Says It Should Be.
Facebook is partly to blame as well (imitation). But at least Facebooks UI is nice to look at.
Better yet, for all you social networking sites, why not add a "My Page" that gives people near enough absolute freedom to do whatever they want in it.
A simple header at the top. Prevent it from being covered. (stupidly easy to do)
Maybe let people add gadgets on to it, drag-and-drop, resize, minimum dimensions, blah blah etc. All the usual stuff.
Done. This way, people can absolutely 100% have a profile AND a page that lets them express themselves.
Hey, I can dream, right?
Tom - "They're my friends" / Gollum - "You don't have any friends"
The only thing more unprofessional than a professional musician directing potential new fans to a social networking website is a business doing the same (god help us). Many people don't have or want a social networking account, and you'd be wise to realize that you're immediately turning those people off -- before they even have a chance to hear your music. I know that I always hesitate to click on a facebook or myspace link, for music or otherwise, and I'm a music lover and musician myself. Try to get me to sign-up (or do any ounce of work) and I'm right out the door.
I suggest you put together a static informational website, find a low-cost (or free) hosting provider, and make that your official band website. Then, if you really need the interactive commenting, link to the social networking page from your official website. But for christ's sake, don't host your tour dates, discography, bio, clips, or any other piece of essential information with somebody whose primary goal is to get their own word out, rather than yours.
You have no change to survive, make your time
I was about to make the same joke, but it was "chance". (Mmm, WHAT YOU SAY !!)
Can't it just Google them?
:wq
MySpace was the GeoCities of social media sites. Every page had horrific backgrounds and thousands of animated GIFs and there was crap blinking everywhere.
I'm surprised that a good percentage of MySpace users didn't die from epileptic seizures induced by all that flashing.
it's my belief that social networks will rise and fall, endlessly in succession. simply because ubiquity eventually becomes a liability amongst a crowd who views exclusion and superiority to be more important
That sounds like a fair description of Slashdot, but does it really apply to Facebook?
Just the other day I got an event invite on facebook for a "delete your account party"
The description said "hey people im deleting my facebook. you should too! you can reach me at...." he rambled off a bunch of email, IM, forum contacts and a voip. I made it a point that he shouldnt try to influence people to give up facebook just because does. I then pointed out that its counterproductive to replace x with y and z if they function exactly the same and everyone uses x anyway.
He didnt give a phone# or wanna resolve to hangout more in person, but his last contact was his myspace url. I was curious and clicked on it. Surprisingly enough it was current. It suffices to say that he didnt like what i had to say and got pissy, so i gave up.
I maintain my old page for bands and show information but this week i got hit with numerous "imaginary" attractive female user adds. i thought the idea of spam was to head for a target rich environment.
Steve Jobs doesn't have a marketing degree. In face he doesn't have any degree at all. But he was directly involved in transitioning personal computers from a 70's garage hobby into a mainstream market. The same cannot be said for anybody else that helmed Apple (hence why apple did so poorly when only sales and marketing guys ran it).
Anyone been to Friendster lately? They're trying to position themselves as a place to go for gaming.
And does anyone remember that UK site, Friends Reunited? The one where you had to pay to contact your old school friends? I still get an occasional email from them saying "latest happenings on Friends Reunited". There's nothing happening.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
I didn't think MySpace still had 10 million users left!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I had forgotten that I have a myspace account. I'm so glad this article came up. I've been reminded that I need to get my password reset on it so I can login and delete my myspace account.
Thanks!!!
Because of this article, I logged into my myspace account. Lo and behold, there was a message waiting for me saying, "you can upgrade your profile and sync with facebook!"
When they're trying to link you to their supposed competitor, you know they're dead.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Netcraft confirms it: MySpace is dying!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
This story has been circ'ing the net for the last week.
Your comment is plagiarism or a dupe.
THAT's the real surprise.
I've got the perfect name for it. GnuFace.
Why don't they shut down the other 63 million spam pages? It would clean up my Google search results. Nobody uses it for anything else anymore, anyway.
So does that mean my inactive MySpace account from last century still counts as a "MySpace user"?
I think I changed my home email three times since then.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I met someone who worked at Myspace, they said they laying almost all their employees off this summer.
Have they tried looking behind the couch?
Huh?
have they done anything worthwhile to keep their customers lately, anything new, anything.....not like facebook which is always pushing (like google) to be on top....i see myspace as the first gen floppy, to be replaced by next gen cd (facebook) until dvds come out, and usb keys...etc.... myspace in my opinion was just a first stepping stone to better things, ....twitter is the same too in my books, although charlie sheen is helping them stay on top...
Who is to say the 10 million accounts lost by MySpace are real?
If they can now just loose 63 million more, Ruppert Murdoch will get what he deserves.
I hope FOX is next.
From the original article:
"Tech industry analysts comScore say figures show MySpace lost more than 10 million unique users worldwide between January and February."
But what about Friendface? Somebody _please_ think of Friendface!
proud caffeine whore
MySpace can lose 1 million users a month and it'll still last 5 years unless closed earlier. The Chinese social networking websites are just as likely to grow and grow then shrink too. I wouldn't invest in News Corp, the owner of MySpace, but if I could I would invest in the Chinese businesses. Then in a few more years I'd move to other investments.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
NPR news is pretty neutral (I'm talking about the hourly news, not the shows, which do lean to the left a bit generally)
Years ago I liked to watch Crossfire on PBS where Conservatives and (NOT) Liberals would sit across from each other debating an issue.
if you get your political opinions from people like Beck
I used to be accused of getting my beliefs and opinions from him. When I was it was the first tyme I heard of him. Though it's been more than 10 years I used to like to listen to Rush. He'd spew all these numbers that were easy to prove wrong. I don't listen to leftists either, they're just as bad.
Falcon
Notice I didn't say "Liberals" above, instead I used "leftists". That is because they are not Liberals. A real liberal believes in liberty and small government, but many of those called "liberal" today believe in big government.
Should there be a Law?
Mind you, I don't have cable TV. How closed minded is that?? ;)
Cable TV not needed for Fox News. There are over the air-waves Fox radio and TV stations.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Says my 18 year old cousin, from his college dorm room.
Once one of the largest cities in America, Detroit has no chance for surviving. In the latest tally the population is down to just 700,000. The city is finished, it really is.
From an article in today's Wall Street Journal:
"For years, Detroit was a synonym for American energy and opportunity. Here Motown Records was born and General Motors became the first company to make a billion dollars in a single year. And here the auto industry that we now think of as geriatric drove the American economy, helped create the American Dream, and defined American culture to the world."
Times change, people move on, they leave the city, website, whatever it is, because it is no longer relevant.
Since some months, after logging in successfully, my session seems to get lost and I have to login again.
So the site is quite unusable for me.
I don't have any fancy stuff installed in firefox. adblock plus, that's all.
Solution: well facebook does not have that problem, so I'll go and use that one...
Atari rules... ermm... ruled.
Its not interesting, social trends change, MySpace was the place to be. Is it now? No. The Same with 'Bebo', and people that still use IM such as IRC, and AIM. People use different things now its really that that big of a deal. MySpace is survives now because of the bands and music projects that use it. Facebook offer's much better things and its easier to use and get to.
Simples
Open Letter To News Corp:
Dear Rupert, Chase, and Jonathan,
Bet you never thought your mistakes, as well as your practice of lying to people, would ever become public did you?
Would assume it is hard to dispute the facts when there are correspondences and audio recordings of all communications that support said representations as it relates to the conduct and activities by, and/or on the behalf of, News Corp, MySpace, and its representatives.
If Chase, Jonathan, or Rupert would personally, and on behalf of News Corp and MySpace, provide authorization and permission to release all correspondences and recorded telephone conversations related to this matter. We would be willing to accommodate that request by providing to several media outlets, including Fox News, all related materials so that a “fair and balanced” determination could be made as to how News Corp does business.
This shall also allow outside individuals, parties, media and the pubic to determine how badly Carey and Miller, through their activities and conduct, destroyed MySpace and drove it from a success to a complete failure.
As a result of their unwillingness to further discuss and initiate a process that would have generated the stated revenues and results as referenced due to their egos and the greed obstructing their ability to apply common sense and to utilize their brains. They have effectively destroyed MySpace and drove its value down more than any other reasons for the decline and eventual failure of MySpace.
We shall see if Carey, Miller, or Murdoch are willing to let the public in on the truth, and provide authorization so that the referenced material may be released, as well as all related documentation in support of the representations that have been made as they relate to this matter.
Here are the facts; Carey and Miller were provided the opportunity to change the direction of MySpace last year with a proposal that would increase net profits of MySpace to 1.5 billion dollars by the third year.
Based on our experience with News Corp, Carey, and Miller no one should trust any of them.
They wanted us to disclose the plan to them without any written agreement in place. When that was refused, there were no further discussions. And for the record New Corp has a documented history of being given ideas and concepts and then incorporated said ideas or concepts. They later claim that they already had been developing that idea or concept, and effectively cut out the parties providing them with any such ideas or concepts. This knowledge not only comes from other such occurrences that were learned, but also from prior experiences in dealing with News Corp. Bottom line you can not trust News Corp if there is not an agreement and detailed documentation and records maintained when doing any business with News Corp.
I would venture to guess anyone they claim to be offering more than 10 million dollars for MySpace would be another one of their lies considering the current state and condition of MySpace.
It is believed that the damage that Carey and Miller have done to MySpace has brought the value of MySpace down to nothing.
Anyone willing to pay the 50 to 200 million dollars for MySpace as News Corp alleges would mean one of two things. EITHER THEY LIED TO MYSPACE ABOUT WHAT THEY WERE WILLING TO PAY,,,,
OR MORE LIKELY IS NEWS CORP, CAREY, AND MILLER ARE LYING AGAIN IN AN EFFORT TO DRIVE THE PRICE UP.
TIME WILL TELL!!!