Myspace- a marketing company- can easily be called the pioneer of present-day “Influencer Marketing.” It has been adored by people from all age groups. MySpace, founded in 2003, and it can be credited to have connected hundreds of people around the world and render an efficient dais for their interaction; thanks to their common interests in music, movies, and popular culture. When Myspace was at its zenith, it users used to spend hours and hours each day; connecting with a wide range of audience via a virtual rostrum. The business model of Myspace enabled millions of users across the globe to garnish their profiles according to their personality, taste, and experience.
Born as a result of the growing popularity of Friendster, its parent social network service, Myspace has been among the earliest social networks to have indulged in e-commerce; and has sold everything from junk and diet pills to remote-controlled helicopters.
Let’s delve into the details of the business as well as the revenue model of Myspace.
1. Largest Social Network
Myspace aimed at proferring highly personalized experience to its users through a social networking platform. It provided a user-friendly interface with customized personal profiles, blogs, photos, music, and videos. Myspace was recognized as the largest social networking platform during the period 2005-2009. What’s more surprising is the fact that it overshadowed Google as the “most visited website in the United States” in June 2006. The reason behind the success of Myspace can be credited to the one-of-its-kind of shared experience; which was definitely a novel thing of any virtual social networking rostrum. Millions of people, irrespective of their geographical location, connected instantly; based on their common interests.
2. Birthplace Of A Vast Market
Myspace can rightly be termed as the frontrunner back in 2005. It was effectively being used as a vehicle of marketing by large and small business owners alike. Myspace’s huge clan of users left no chance to attract brands, professionals, and creative people from all domains. The social networking site succoured in the distribution of their ads; they could basically sell anything. The brands and businesspeople could easily create a profile on Myspace and expand their network of users/friends. Even Viacom, the American multinational mass media conglomerate, wanted to resuscitate the fan base of MTV Channel using Myspace.
3. Traffic Ranking
As of 2009, Myspace was one of the largest websites in terms of traffic. It did not fail a single chance to cover celebrity, fashion, sports, and even books. It soon became a hub for literature nerds. Myspace easily attracted nearly 100 million users; all thanks to internationalization and smartphone penetration. A major chunk of its traffic was generated in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany. Not only did people want to expand their network of friends, but it were, primarily, the brands that wanted to reach out to a large section of the customers; hence, aid in the tremendous diversion of the traffic to Myspace. Also, Myspace employed Web 2.0; which helped in the generation of dynamic content and aided efficient interaction between the users directly.
4. Free Music
Myspace shot a major deal with music labels. They stood out from other social networks because they were the only virtual platform whereby a user could play and listen to a song from a famous label; and that too free of cost. Myspace, reportedly, spent $10 Million a year to finalize the deal with some of the leading music labels. Moreover, Myspace gave a wonderful chance to budding musicians and singers. The Arctic Monkeys, a famous rock band, and Lily Allen, English singer & songwriter, became crowd-pullers on Myspace. Some of the singers and musicians even released their songs on Myspace for their fans before their music albums were out.
5. Live-Streaming Videos & Music
Myspace enabled millions of users to interact directly if they had common tastes in music; and helped people to search music and TV shows. The social networking platform nurtured the exploration of films, TV, and music like no other website. Even the premieres of some movies were live streamed on Myspace; which did not leave any stone unturned to attract millions of users. The premiere of New Moon, the second instalment in the romance-fantasy series, Twilight, lured more than three million users worldwide; surpassing the number of views on the music video of Shakira which premiered on its rival, Facebook, around the same time.
6. Global Expansion
Myspace burnt out millions of dollars to build its own Content Delivery Network (CDN). However, in the present day scenario, most of the websites use Cloud Network. Moreover, Myspace did not shy away from expanding their business worldwide. They opened offices in new countries, hired new staff, and even launched country-specific Myspace sites. London, Berlin, and Sydney became the focal points for carrying out Myspace’s international operations. It kept on fine-tuning its international growth strategy with time regularly. Fox Interactive Media successfully initiated a UK version of Myspace in January 2006; only to “tap into the UK music scene.”
7. Revenue Trends
Myspace adopted the advertising-only model of revenue generation and not subscription-based models. It conglomerated a strong brand affiliation with entertainment and also attempted to bridge the gap between online and offline user experience. It set out to establish a particular brand tone in the consumer’s minds. Myspace also invited people to click on the ad popularly known as “Punch The Monkey.” It attracted users to click an animated monkey and win a certain prize. Moreover, it abstained from welcoming Ajax; which would have reduced the number of page views generated, and hence, its revenue from advertising. During the 2008 fiscal year, Myspace generated nearly $800 million as revenue.
Image Sources
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- amp.businessinsider.com