Why MySpace is Going To Fail
MySpace last week trimmed 30 percent of their staff in the US as the social network looks to become a more “efficient and nimble team-oriented company.” (http://mashable.com/2009/06/16/myspace-layoffs/) That’s no surprise however – after failing to innovate and create genuine new ideas for the past few years, it’s bound to fail.
There were those days, where being on a friend’s “top eight” list was unquestionable; as in you were deleted if you didn’t. Where choosing that perfect MySpace background took you several hours, and then entering HTML code into the MySpace profile box. Where there was flashing glitter photos of you and your friends scattered among the page in bright writing mixed with a flashing colour box. “Creativity” they called it. Those were fun days indeed, but isn’t 2006 anymore.
In a drastic move to make the NewsCorp owned company become more “efficient and nimble team-oriented”, MySpace has also chosen to eliminate 300 of its 450 staff members outside of the US, as well as close “at least 4” of its international offices. It’s even told its own co-founder Tom, to get out of the office and stay out for 2 years offering 500k a year as compensation. Bad move NewsCorp.
It seems that MySpace page views are declining rapidly, compared with Facebook where it is surging according to ComScore.
But how did it all start?
When I created my MySpace profile sometime last year, I was time and time again frustrated with customising it, maintaining it, posting a comment with all those ridiculous sorts of layouts and so on. Every time I visit a particular profile and I want to comment, I spend roughly spend 60 seconds looking for the “Post a Comment” button and then eventually give up. And that’s a long time. It’s a fairly common problem, user experience failures.
After eventually customising my own profile, and swapping comments back and forth, what could I do next? Check out all the uninteresting and spam-generating applications that they provide? Try and find other friends that I knew on MySpace? Oh wait – I can’t. They find MySpace “too complicated”. “It’s like you try to do something and 5 steps later you realise that you can’t do it! Stupid MySpace! I’m deleting my account!” The simple answer is there isn’t something you can do that makes you stay on it for a long period of time (like more than 5-10 minutes)
Now, I look at MySpace and compare it how it was to before. What has changed? What’s new and interesting that I can play with? Nothing. Only that stupid little Facebook-like chat bar. I then leave the website.
When is MySpace going to come up with a new idea?
End result?
This here is what can happen when you don’t account for usability and don’t provide new interesting features on your website on a regular basis, whether big or small to keep those users coming and staying.
