From MySpace to YourSpace

A Web blockbuster is evolving to try to stay ahead of rivals.

New York Times, January 21, 2008 — Two years ago, Chris DeWolfe, the co-founder and chief executive of MySpace, was talking about international expansion with Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation bought the social networking site in 2005. According to Mr. DeWolfe, an entrepreneur used to moving at Internet velocity, he suggested that MySpace could expand to “four or five” countries in the next year.

What about 13?” Mr. Murdoch said.

That was one of Mr. DeWolfe’s first lessons in just how fast business is done inside the News Corporation.

Social Networking with the Elite

Tired of the Web masses? Now you can find your own gated communities on the Net—if they'll let you in

BusinessWeek, November 15, 2007 — Are you on the digital A-list? It's no longer enough to get invited to exclusive conferences or be asked to join professional organizations—many movers and shakers are taking their hobnobbing online, where a new crop of social networks aim to keep out the riff-raff by demanding credentials at the virtual door. As MySpace (NWS), LinkedIn, and Facebook have expanded to people of all ages, classes, and affiliations, there's a backlash against the open culture of social networking.

Girl Power

No rich relatives? No professional mentors? No problem. Ashley Qualls, 17, has built a million-dollar web site. She's LOL all the way to the bank. :)

Fast Company, September 1, 2007 — ate last year, Ian Moray stumbled across a cotton-candy-pink Web site called Whateverlife.com. As manager of media development at the online marketing company ValueClick Media (NASDAQ:VCLK), he was searching for under-the-radar destinations for notoriously fickle teenagers. Beyond MySpace and Facebook, countless sites come and go in the teen universe, like soon forgotten pop songs. But Whateverlife stood out. It was more authentic somehow. It featured a steady supply of designs for MySpace pages and attracted a few hundred-thousand girls a day. "Clever design, a growing base--that's a no-brainer for us," Moray says.

Disney Hit Proves YouTube Isn't Only Way to Target Teens†

Net Turns to Libraries, Little League to Push 'HSM2'

Advertising Age, August 6, 2007 — Facebook? Forget it.

MySpace? YouTube? Um, like, nuh-uh! Or as Sharpay Evans would say, "Toodles!"

Kids may spend most every waking hour online, but when it came to marketing the sequel to "High School Musical," Disney Channel had little choice but to go decidedly old-school.

MySpace, Facebook: A Tale of Two Cultures

Emerging data suggest the two may not be direct competitors after all. Businesses that want to reach these audiences have more to learn

BusinessWeek, July 2, 2007 — The blogosphere is buzzing about a provocative June 24 essay by U.C. Berkeley researcher Danah Boyd suggesting that MySpace and Facebook users are dividing along race and class lines. Even as her timely ethnographic observations touch off debate among users and Web developers, they underscore a question businesses have been asking since MySpace first launched: Who really uses these sites and what are they doing there?

MySpace Mini-Episodes, Courtesy of Honda

Honda plans to run smaller commercials for a smaller car in smaller versions of television series.

New York Times, June 15, 2007 — Honda will be the sole sponsor of what Sony Pictures Television is calling the Minisode Network, which is scheduled to begin next week

Social Network Marketing, the Sky is the Limit

KenRadio, May 16, 2007 — Led by MySpace, social networking is a cultural phenomenon that is still developing a stable revenue model. Even so, it is estimated that in 2007 marketers will spend $900 million on advertising and marketing on social network sites in the US, mostly to create profile pages and sponsored promotions. Online social networking have become a cultural phenomenon over the past several year, sparking thousands of media stories, blog postings and television exposes.

MySpace hunts revenue in the ecosystem†

Financial Times, April 30, 2007 — Peter Levinsohn, the new head of News Corp’s digital division, has every reason to be in a good mood, having just watched a presentation in which online social networking was heralded as the advertising medium of the future. The presentation, by Marketing Evolution, a market research firm, extolled social networking’s ability to create a viral “momentum effect” for brands. It suggested social networking was more effective for advertisers than television as it creates more engagement between individual brands and consumers.

Harnessing Social Networks

A new service lets companies get into the game quickly

BusinessWeek, April 23, 2007 — Just when you thought you and your business were getting the Web down cold, social networking has come along to confuse matters. After a decade of exposure to the Internet, mom-and-pop businesses and international giants alike have learned to make effective use of the Web. Now they need to figure out new strategies as the Web morphs from a mainly one-way method of communicating with customers to a free-for-all of user-created content.

Cold Cash From A Hot Site

Can MySpace pull in revenue fast enough for Rupert?

BusinessWeek, April 9, 2007 — As numbers go, this one's a whopper. Last year MySpace users called up an average of 31.5 billion unique page views per month. That's as though everyone on the planet visited the site once a week. And yet, the big kahuna of social networking racked up a paltry $90 million in ad sales. Not exactly what Rupert Murdoch had in mind when his News Corp. paid $580 million for MySpace nearly two years ago.