The Stomping of MySpace

By 2006 only three years after its creation, MySpace was the most visited website for both The United States and the world. This popularity was short lived as Facebook quickly dominated any online competition with its massive following.

Total lack of both adaptability and innovation: When their numbers started to decline nothing really changed. The website's layout which was already too complex for its own good never underwent any major changes until its ownership actually did something. NewsCorp's management can be seen as a contributing factor to this as the staff had little interest in investing money back into the site. This seemed to be the direct opposite of Facebook's policy as they were undergoing dramatic changes on a somewhat regular basis and regularly investing for long term growth. Another contributing factor to this was that Facebook had decided seek outside help for designing apps that created a new level of interaction with users.

How bad was NewsCorp's gamble to cash in on the social networking boom? Well in 2005 MySpace was bought for $580 million. It was then sold in 2011 for only $35 million.

Facebook on the other hand seems to be only gaining more popularity. It's closest competition is now Twitter and Linked In, both of which don't offer near as many features as Facebook does. The site is continually under going upgrades, most recently the "timeline" feature streamlines uploads into a more organized photogenic way.

Despite the disappointment of Facebook's move public the site continues to grow, surpassing 1 billion users in October of 2012. During its growth, Facebook has also made a continual effort to buy up companies that offer features that Facebook did not already have, such as the purchase of photo sharing app, Instagram in April of 2012.

With an ever growing number of tools such as instant messaging, video calls, market place, photo timeline, and groups in addition to an ever growing number of businesses that place themselves on the site, Facebook seems to be avoiding any fate similar to MySpace... for now.