With Facebook apparently set to launch an initial public offering this week, valuing it at $US75 billion-$US100 billion, the market’s willingness to capitalise the optimism around social networking businesses is about to be tested.
MySpace
RIP MySpace
MySpace is not technically dead, but it might as well be. The website Rupert Murdoch purchased for US$580 million is steadily fading into oblivion. On its 8th anniversary, the staff at Mashable share their MySpace memories.
Network effect to keep Facebook safe from Google move
Facebook, more than almost any other company, is a beneficiary of a global “network effect”.
No room left for Myspace
Sold for an embarrassing price, the once cool Myspace is now as good as dead. Why did it fail? What went wrong? For starters it used to look pretty bloody ugly, writes Sam Biddle.
MySpace slashed to just $30m, going once, going twice…
After spending US$100million buying MySpace when it was cool, News Corp has nearly sold it for a tremendous loss to a buyer no one has ever heard of, writes Kara Swisher.
News Corp running out of puff as Sky deal looms
It’s going to be a big week for Rupert Murdoch and News Corp next week.
Murdoch takes a Shine to his daughter’s company
It’s been an odd old start to the new year for Rupert Murdoch and his family company, News Corp.
Here comes Mybook and Facespace
Everybody knows Myspace lost the war against Facebook a long time ago, but the formerly mighty music sharing website now appears to have conceded defeat by implementing a new Facebook login feature, reports Nick O’Neill.
Pesce: How social networks sucked us in
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter suckered us in and stole our privacy so quickly, we barely noticed it happening, says Mark Pesce. Now we have to fight back to keep the one thing we have left: our unique identity.
MySpace now selling off your data
Like a washed-up musician pawning his guitars for cash, MySpace is now flogging details of its users’ blog posts, photos, status updates and locations to analysts to marketers.
MySpace goes into meltdown
Anonymous MySpace employees are flooding TechCrunch with tales of how the once-cool company is crumbling: “idiots are running the company into the ground” says one disgruntled staffer.
Can the internet kill Rupert Murdoch?
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is adept at hiding his many business failures, writes Michael Wolff, but MySpace — and Murdoch’s lack of internet savvy — is proving to be his biggest public disaster.
Arrington: Why MySpace needs to ditch News Corp
MySpace is the “unwanted step child” of News Corp, says Michael Arrington: it has terrible management, executives who don’t care, and a total dearth of new products and ideas. Its only chance for survival is to free itself from Rupert’s grip.
News results in: Team Rupe’s coffers swell
News Corp has released is second-quarter and first-half earnings report, with mixed results: cable and operating profits were up, but its digital strategy still looks a crock .
2010: the year of quitting social media
RSI from your constant Twitpicing? It seems that 2010 is the year of disconnecting from the internet and heading back out into the real world, writes Mel Campbell. If Stephen Fry can do it, you can too.
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: Maccas really do care about your opinions
McDonald’s do some sly online surveys about which experts you most trust. Plus, a pretty clear sign that MySpace has lost its cachet with online social networkers.
The epic FAIL of Myspace
The Financial Times has written a definitive account of the epic rise and fall of social media phenomenon Myspace — from Murdoch’s $580m “bargain” buyout in 2005 to recent revelations that it would lose $100m this year.
Murdoch and Microsoft: the mice are trying to roar
Rupert Murdoch thinks Microsoft has all the answers, which it once did. But when it comes to the internet, it has struggled, and mostly failed, to buck or control the currents of the business, writes Michael Wolff.
Is social media killing the web as we know it?
Web traffic to every Australian news site has been trending down this year. Perhaps this is what those annoying social media experts have been predicting all along: people are passing news directly among themselves, bypassing the traditional news outlets.
Rupert’s pay-up model for newspapers on the back-burner
Amid all the throwaway lines and bullish spin, Rupert Murdoch and his executives always bury some truths in their comments about quarterly profits. Yesterday’s quarterly profit announcement was no exception.
MySpace and Facebook to team up?
Facebook has well and truly bested MySpace in the social networking game, but MySpace still has one ace up its sleeve: music and entertainment. Instead of competing, the two are apparently putting their differences aside to share content across the two networks.
MySpace surrenders to Facebook
MySpace has officially given up in its battle for social media supremacy with Facebook, the the company’s CEO now claiming it is far more interested in becoming “an online hub for music and entertainment.”
MySpace is now worthless
A few years ago, Rupert Murdoch purchased buzzing social network site MySpace for the bargain basement price of $580 million. How much is it worth these days? Next to nothing, estimates Henry Blodget.
