All MySpace Are Belong To Us

For months I've been tracking the divergence between legitimate corporate interests and the needs of on-line communities.  Multichannel quotes Peter Chernin - CEO of NewsCorp - as saying that he is anxious to kill off Flickr, YouTube, and other Web 2.0ish applications that are apparently parasitically sucking traffic off MySpace.

Mr. Chernin showed his hubris when he said:

” Chernin said. “Given that most of their traffic comes from us, if we
build adequate, if not superior, competitors, I think we ought to be
able to match them, if not exceed them.”.

Peter should remember: NewsCorp bought, not built, MySpace.  They have very little actual experience in building an on-line application from the ground up.

Peter should also know that he is jumping on a band wagon very late.  There are thousands of groups out there building little on-line apps to do these things.

But mostly, Peter should understand that the strength of the web is the feelings of freedom you get by being able to select amongst a variety of components to get things done.  The strength of the web is the antithesis of sticky - the polar opposite of brand loyalty - the essence of non-permanence.

Mr. Chernin believes that MySpace will still be a major player in 5 years.  Poor Mr. Chernin.

I don't know what will displace MySpace, but it will be displaced.  It's hard to imagine a world without MySpace, just like at one time it was hard to imagine a world without Ronald Reagan.  But, you see, Mr. Chernin comes from a world of broadcast media - a world of (even on cable) a very limited playing field.  Merely being on the field assured some sort of success. 

He also comes from a world of corporate sensibility.  Someone is leaving my place to go to a different place?  Well, I'll have to control all the places then.

But, funny, this isn't even how commerce works.  Have you ever noticed how some parts of town are the "Restaurant area" or the "Clothing store area" or the "Chinatown".  This is because businesses in an urban setting tend to thrive when located near like businesses.  The ease of choice allows people to go to an area and decide worry-free.  They don't have to make a final decision of which restaurant to eat at until the last second.  It's an urban design fact that has been true for centuries.

Even though there's this concentration of places to go, their diversity is what gives them strength.  The differences in approaches that different creative teams give to their goods and services. 

NewsCorp can certainly spend their money creating nice new Me-Too applications that will take marketshare from YouTube and Flickr and Penthouse.com, but I believe it highly unlikely that they will innovate.  As I noted a few days ago, Me-Tooism is not well received by the easily bored Internet generation.  Chernin will find that there is some magic delta between his Me-Too application and what he is copying wherein even innovation isn't enough to wow.  The innovation needs to be useful and provide some new game to play.

If Chernin were smart, he would be surrounding himself with experts in game theory, computer gaming and social networking and building out from there.  The applications will be secondary to the game - the game is what supports the community.  The game is not an application.  It is not photo sharing.  It is not downloading music. 

The game is something that captures the imagination of the users in the service of doing something useful and fun.

But corporations are not interested in either useful or fun, they are interested in attention.  And companies like NewsCorp equate attention with the object's reception of attention, and not the subject's needs in the provision of that attention.  You see, Corporations see attention as something they take - but people see attention as something they give.  And it's personal. 

Good luck to you, Mr. Chernin.  Crush your competition.

Update:  Nick Carr has a nice post about this as well.


Technorati Tags: MySpace, Chernin, control, autocracy

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Comments

[Rob]

My guess is that http://us.cyworld.com will replace Myspace.

[Jim Benson]

Cyworld will certainly eat in to MySpace's popularity. The original Korean Cyworld predates MySpace and is run by people who understand motivations of users better.

In the end, though, MySpace's goal is to make money - not to foster community. That focus will make them develop Me-Toos and not expand MySpace in interesting ways.