Really interesting article in the FT yesterday about the rise and fall of MySpace drawing a (contrasting) comparison to the current web sensation Facebook.
I have to admit that while I really struggled with the point of Facebook but I have never got MySpace. Not at all. Ever.
Potentially I can see Facebook being a real drain on peoples time (you need Responsinet to deal with that). I find the mindless games and quizzes that appear to be a waste of space and I still fail to see the business benefit but least people have stopped poking me. That said I do use it on a daily basis and it has proved to be a great way for me to get back in touch with a number of people that I haven’t seen since I finished my degree course. For which I am very grateful.
MySpace, on the other hand, I can say that I have been to only a handful of times and have never found any reason to sign up or make a frequent return visit. My visits to MySpace have been to an artists page, that of Justin Currie is a good example, there primarily to advertise the artist’s latest release and not frequently updated. I have absolutely no idea if MySpace can be used for anything else other than this promotional type page and there are no clues offered as to what else MySpace might, or might not, be able to do.
Now I realise that MySpace is not aimed at my age group but that isn’t really the point. I should, even as a casual user, be able to easily discover what the point is of a site for the access that I am granted.
There is an important business lesson here. If people cannot quickly and easily understand what you are about they will not stop long. And that is why, in my opinion, people are flocking away from MySpace to Facebook.
Do you use MySpace? I am particularly interested if this is a UK thing, which I suspect it is, and that the majority of MySpace users are in the US.