Dissecting MySpace's Fall From Grace

I don't have a MySpace account, so I'm on the outside looking in regarding the social networking site's decline.

But I'm always fascinated when a market leader is eclipsed by another competitor, in this case Facebook. From a strategic and analytical perspective, I like to know why.

Here's the latest: According to Internet market research firm comScore*, MySpace had a 2% drop in unique worldwide visitors in February, to 124 million, while Facebook unique visitors soared 16.6% to 276 million. A year ago, MySpace and Facebook were about equal; now Facebook has twice the number of visitors (despite some very public stumbles recently involving design changes).

Over at IT PRO, Asavin Wattanajantra offers 10 reasons "why MySpace is in freefall," some serious, others not so much. Here are a few of each (I'll leave it to you to sort out which is which):

The design

I've never liked it very much, and it hasn't really changed in the time I've been there. And for some reason, MySpace users have this habit of creating really garish, childish designs which wouldn't look out of place in preschool.

Phished accounts

It's a real pain when Holly 21, from California, blonde with big boobs, asks you to be her friend cos she likes getting wild with strangers. Maybe not in real life I guess, but in cyber geek world it's just irritating.

Wannabe bands

Sorry wannabe rock stars, but I'm not going to add your crappy unoriginal indie band music or be your friend. I don't give a crap about half the bands I actually hear every day so why the hell am I going to like you??

Random adding

This is what MySpace is for I guess, but being on Facebook so long I've realised I have enough friends. And I probably won't add you because you are younger than my socks.

Meanwhile, an article in the San Mateo Daily Journal offers opinions not from analysts and self-styled Internet experts, but from real users (what a novel concept!), in this case teens:

"I didn't like MySpace because it's all over the place; it's not uniform throughout like Facebook is. Too much custom work can be done," Junipero Serra High School senior Mike Rulon-Miller said.

Students felt MySpace was limited to commenting friends, uploading single photos, listing activities and adding music to the Web.

"I think [Facebook] functions better, plus Facebook is more of a social thing whereas MySpace was just pictures and messages. There was no 'MySpace Chat,'" Redwood High School senior Ben Karp said.

In addition to "Facebook chat," members can upload unlimited photos, unlike MySpace. Facebook's organized layout allows users to browse applications and friends' pages with ease.

"I feel like its a classier version of MySpace," St. Ignatius High School senior Kyle Nelson said.

Facebook also offers applications that range from games like virtual Scrabble to iLike, a music inventory where members can select their favorite music and add concert events to their site's events calendar.

And here's an observation from eWeek's Nicholas Kolakowski:

Facebook, meanwhile, has taken steps into online advertising -- but not nearly to the extent of MySpace, which seems determined to plaster much of its online real estate with ads.

If I had to distill all of this, it sounds to me as though:

• MySpace, after great initial success, failed to see beyond its original vision, whereas Facebook did.
• Facebook better grasped what users wanted and gave it to them.
• MySpace alienated users by trying to monetize them with heavy advertising.

Sounds like a recipe for decline to me. The only questions are whether it's too late for MySpace, and whether another competitor can do the same to Facebook.

I'd love to hear from readers about the reasons for MySpace's fall from the top of the social networking mountain. As I said, I'm on the outside looking in, but find it a fascinating topic.

* (Note to comScore: Your "Recent Media Coverage" links on your Press Center page are woefully out of date. Clearly you've been quoted in the press more recently than last Dec. 18.)