It was reported last week that social networking site MySpace would be shifting its focus more toward entertainment. Once the dominate social network, Facebook now outdoes MySpace in almost every important way. Though advertising via social networking sites has declined overall, it has increased at Facebook, making them money when MySpace had to cut its staff by 30 percent last month.
So MySpace is reshaping itself, and will soon offer their users entertainment and related information, though no details have yet been given about what this new entertainment focus would include. Luckily, MySpace is already heavily geared towards entertainment since their owner, News Corp, helped create MySpace Music in a joint venture with the four largest record labels. The service is not quite a year old and is still searching to find its footing, but it’s certainly well stocked with music. And since they’ve allowed users to upload their own video clips, the user-generated video angle is covered. If they want to offer movies and/or TV shows, MySpace could conceivably do more with Hulu, the successful video portal that News Corp. started with NBC Universal.
The New York Times BITS Blog recently looked at the ways in which Hulu has succeeded where others have failed. MySpace could certainly benefit from a greater connection with it’s more successful sibling. But it seems like Hulu might have a better handle on how people use high-speed internet, and what they want from it. If MySpace could give people what they want the way Hulu does, there might be hope for its future in entertainment.
Tags: High Speed Internet