The Industry Standard - Facebook vs. MySpace: The battle for global social network dominance - Comments

READ:~~!!! We can not debate

Shereese — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:43:19 -0700

READ:~~!!!
We can not debate about something that cannot be solved,
The reason why theres so many social networks is because people change,have different opinions,find one thing better than the other.
Just because myspace has more users than facebook,doesnt mean that myspace dominates;it means that a more people PREFER a social network that they can relate to or gives them self satisfaction.

To tell the truth,all myspace and facebook are,is a trend.And every trend eventually wears off.
So 5 years from now there will be a new and improved site,myspace or facebook may update there site but people are changing by the second.It just like a blackberry,it was very popular until the iphone came out.Doesnt mean that the blackberry was bad or the iphone was better,its just that trends have there own time whether it may be long or short.

The reason why theres more users than the other is location kids these days find out about networks like facebook.myspace from friends,depending on the area...whichever is more "popular" you can find more friends that you know and thats the site you would stay with..

Lets face it,people are always looking for something new.
Thats what facebook has done,but then again since myspace was one of the first largest social networks..facebook took some ideas changed them a little and made a site.So you cant really say its "New".

All people really want is to find a site thats enjoyable whether its high tech or not,it depends on the person..and everyone is different,so you never know.
Thanks.

P.s.Feel free to make comments,i would love to hear your opinion on the matter:)

When it comes to complaints

Roger — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:45:43 -0700

When it comes to complaints about myspace by facebook users, it looks to be the same old baseless, pretentious rhetoric. Let's face it: If you think myspace has pedophiles while facebook does not, you have some real issues with employing common sense in your logic.

Mysapce, being the first major social networking site, naturally became the poster-boy for everything that can go wrong with such a site. It's like when people cry and point fingers at McDonald's for making people fat, while the most fattening fast food hamburger on the market is sold at Carl's Jr.

Secondly, Facebook is synonymous with college students, because it originated on a college campus and initially had a reputation for catering only to college students. This appeals to people who not only went to college, or who are in college, but also people who have never stepped foot on a college campus, but would like to be identified with people who have.

People enjoy being able to call something "passe." Myspace accomplishes this for them. While they pretend to be above the "friend count" culture of myspace, they relish the opportunity to tout facebook as the site that "everyone is using."

In fact, doesn't facebook also show a friend count? The ignorance is beyond my understanding.

Well i have accounts in

Juan Carlos — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:46:47 -0700

Well i have accounts in bought sites, but i enjoy facebook a lot more than myspace, i dont even login to my space since like Dicember jaja is hard to keep up with bought sites aajaja... I think facebook is more dinamic and it has a better spirit ..

There is some voting online
take a look at it

http://www.ibexmatch.com/buscarpost.php?cdpost=103&Facebook-vs-MySpace

I must be honest i do have

Juan Carlos — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:43:20 -0700

I must be honest i do have acounts in bougth sites, but i haveng even login in myspace account since i opened my one in Facebook, i think fb is simply more dinamic and i enjoy it the must..

By the way there is some online voting Unofficial tought but it would be kind of cool to see how wins jaaj

take a look at it:

http://www.ibexmatch.com/buscarpost.php?cdpost=103&Facebook-vs-MySpace

Well i have acounts in

Juan Carlos — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:39:00 -0700

Well i have acounts in bouthg sites but to be honest i dont even use myspace anymore, i became to big a fan of facebook, for a while it actually made hard for me to get to work because i keep on cheacking the recent activity jajaa but not anymore!! ( yeah my boss got the site blocked jajaja)...

Any how there is some unofficial voting in this site :

http://www.ibexmatch.com/buscarpost.php?cdpost=103&Facebook-vs-MySpace

check it out..and leave a vote.

Well i have acounts in

Juan Carlos — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:38:08 -0700

Any how there is some unofficial voting in this site :

http://www.ibexmatch.com/buscarpost.php?cdpost=103&Facebook-vs-MySpace

check it out..and leave a vote.

I don't think it makes much

samiam — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:10:09 -0700

I don't think it makes much sense to say one site is better than the other. And as much as people here try to talk Myspace dead...it's not going to happen. I have been on Myspace for 5 years, never once got phished, nor spammed. For people who can't work their personal security settings on the site, I suggest it's better for you to be on Facebook. As for Pedo's and alike, Myspace catches more and reports them to Law Enforcement. Just because Facebook doesn't report as many, doesn't mean the Pedo's aren't on Facebook. I hear less people bitching about Facebook, because I just don't know many people using Facebook. Down the road, most likely both sites will be history one day. People should just stop bitching, those sites are free, so you can't expect not to be bothered by ads. Craigslist is full of scam, and people still love the site (I do). I don't think the sites are bad, people who are abusing the sites suck.

I prefer Facebook simply

Alana — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:08:26 -0700

I prefer Facebook simply because of what it CAME FROM. I wish it was only still for college folks. But even with everyone and their mother on it, it's safer, cleaner and easy to use. Yes MySpace is more creative and good for bands, but I deleted my MySpace and solely use Facebook. But I do appreciate it's availability. Facebook is annoying however with the apps...but I just ignore them.

My opinion on this matter is

Tusia — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:26:05 -0800

My opinion on this matter is that myspace is dead & gone. Facebook is definatly up and on the move. I myself have used myspace before but found it pointless. I haven't made a facebook account but I am considering joining only to get more in-touch with friends and family around the world.
Zanku. =D

Readers: I've had to delete

Ian Lamont — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:47:05 -0800

Readers: I've had to delete several comments. You are welcome to debate which social network is better, but please be respectful of others. As noted below, "comments that are defamatory, indecent, abusive, or in violation of any law will be removed."

Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard

to the comment above

CHong Pachanga — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:25:53 -0800

to the comment above ^^
bands aren't everything in the world, facebook is total domination of life and chicken pox! just because one feature of facebook is not as good as myspace doesn't mean it is any worse than facebook, i am a member of both sites and i realised myspace has tried to incorporate applications, thus copying what facebook originally did and failing miserably at it.
and why would you be writing about it anyway if its just a waste of time?
BLAHHHH

myspacee winner

vitoriaa ochoaaa Andeer — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:47:25 -0800

myspacee winner

i would also like to point

anthony hardin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:43:53 -0800

i would also like to point out that a massive majority of the facebook users crowd is already in a niche, that being either a specific highschool or college, facebook uses this and prioitize member searches based on what related affiliations a person has. A member from wisconson cannot easily view a page from a person in singapore unless those people are already "friended" so it is in a large part already niched.

Ian i have to disagree with

anthony hardin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:40:19 -0800

Ian i have to disagree with you comment entirely. However vogue it would be as a typical business/econ/ commence majors answer to the question here there is a major problem with your argument. You failed here to recognize that a social network is dependent largely on the expansiveness of the network. Niche site will be around, and the will prosper, but they will never dominate because the largest draw that facebook has is it ability to connect someone to almost anyone else, most importantly anyone else that the user might actually know. The facebook dynamic as it is does not depend on pure computer to computer interactions but operates best and most prevalently as a supplement to actual personal relationships. Neich site can offer this however only to a limited scope. The prediction i would have to make is that facebook will inevitably create its own niche style applications, or another site which offers those plus the current unilateral draw of face book will supersede facebooks throne; diversification of the market however is not in its near or forseeable future.

facebook is the ultimate

alfred msungama — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:04:49 -0800

facebook is the ultimate social networking tool, simple fun, and lets face it, has a lot more interesting people, and a lot less reported cases of peadophiles, I dont understand why anyone still uses Hi5, which I have tried, which is crap and Myspace is just not user friendly, FACEBOOK is the social networking tool of the future. Myspace, your days are numbered.

Facebook vs. MySpace: The battle for global social network dominance

Melissa Chang — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:34:40 -0700

MySpace still has a hefty traffic lead over Facebook in the U.S., so it was big news when ComScore released 2008 data that showed Facebook gaining quickly on MySpace in international traffic. According to the data, Facebook already gets more international page views than MySpace and is gaining quickly in unique visitors. In January, Facebook had 100.7 million unique international visitors compared to MySpace's 109.3 million; a difference of just 8% compared to a year ago when the difference was nearly 400%. While some other social networking tools dominate in specific international markets, no other platform comes close to the two U.S. giants in overall audience and reach.

To many, Facebook's international gains came as a surprise. MySpace had a head start getting into the global market, launching its first international site in Britain in April 2006 before rolling out sites in other European countries, generally with success. More recently, MySpace has begun launching in countries that are more difficult for U.S. companies to penetrate, including India, Russia and, this week, South Korea. In contrast, Facebook's first non-English site didn't launch until February 2008. MySpace still has more countries in which it is embedded in the local language -- there are 29 translated versions of MySpace specialized for 25 countries. Facebook is currently available in only four languages: English, Spanish, French and German. Facebook has also faced some widely publicized hiccups with its international strategy, including the failure to purchase all of its localized domain names, such as Facebook.fr.

But while MySpace plans and launches its international sites in a more traditional way -- setting up local offices, getting entrenched in the culture and then launching, -- Facebook is building out its foreign language versions with the help of its vast and committed user base. Instead of setting up an office and a staff before launching in new countries, Facebook is putting its audience to work with an online Facebook application that allows translation by the Facebook community. To participate, Facebook users add a Translation Application to their account that they can use to translate, review and vote on translations in their language. Once the language translations are completed and quality has been verified by the community, the Facebook site in the new language is launched for all Facebook users.

Facebook is currently working on 22 more language translations, and many hundreds of users have left suggestions about other languages that they would like to see translated -- and have volunteered to help with the work.

This savvy approach to new markets will be what wins the international audience for Facebook. In combination with the widely used Facebook Platform, which will allow international developers to build Facebook applications for local audiences, Facebook's international strategy is the better one. MySpace, with its less innovative international approach and still-new and largely untested developer's platform, will not be able to catch up.

MySpace does have one huge advantage in the U.S. market -- it completely dominates Facebook in music. This could be the one area in which MySpace is able to build out its international presence and counter Facebook in new markets. However, the recent announcement of MySpace Music and its support by three of the four major record labels also included the news that MySpace Music would not be rolling out internationally until issues concerning international rights were solved. This was the final nail in the coffin of MySpace's international hopes. The one area in which it had a chance will instead have the opposite effect of alienating its international users by making them an afterthought.

(Obviously, Facebook and MySpace are not the only social networks, and there are a large number of other social networks that are #1 in various countries, including Orkut in Brazil, Live Journal in Russia and Bebo in New Zealand. For a rundown of the social networks that lead in various countries, check out “Social networks and international audiences.”)

Melissa Chang is the founder of Pure Incubation, an Internet incubator based in the Boston area. Her blog is at www.16thletter.com.

Related news, commentary, and predictions:

Prediction: Facebook overtakes MySpace in international traffic
Prediction: Ning exceeds 300K social networks by end of year
Melissa Chang: How MySpace Music could beat iTunes
Opinion: 10 'Net services that will succeed (and 10 that will probably fail)

Note: Anonymous comments on The Industry Standard are disabled. To leave a comment and participate in the Standard's prediction market, please register first.