MySpace; starting to lose steam?
Quaker Campus
Issue date: 1/21/10 Section: Campus Life
After losing its position as the world's most trafficked social networking site to Facebook in 2008, MySpace has been steadily losing ground-and members-to other social networking sites ever since.
In 2008, MySpace was the sixth most visited internet site in the entire world. As of Jan. 18, it has fallen to the 15th most visited site in the ranked statistics provided by Alexa, an information company that monitors the traffic of popular internet sites. The site that was once visited by over eight percent of all global internet users has dropped in traffic to under four percent.
"One of the reasons that MySpace dropped in popularity [since 2008] is that there are more options for social networking sites. Facebook, in particular, took a lot of business from them," sophomore Scott Peyatt said.
Senior Alex Tallarida, also cites competition as the reason for MySpace's dramatic decline in popularity.
"It was Facebook. When Facebook, which was originally a college site, started accepting members of all ages, a lot of people switched [to Facebook from MySpace]. Also, uploading pictures is faster [on Facebook]," Tallarida said.
In the "Press Room" section of its site, MySpace defines itself as "a technology company connecting people through personal expression, content and culture," that "empowers its global community to experience the Internet through a social lens by integrating personal profiles, photos, videos, mobile, messaging, games and the world's largest music community."
However, MySpace was much more than that. In addition to being a social networking site, as well as what RandomHistory.com refers to as "a media hosting site that is part chat room, part movie theater, part shopping mall, part bar and part concert that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year," MySpace also played a major part in bolstering the popularity of social networking sites, a trend continued from older, less popular sites such as Xanga and Friendster.
Launched in Jan. 2004, the social networking site MySpace reached the one million member mark the very next month. By Nov. 2004, the membership hit five million and MySpace Records, an original music label, was launched the following November. In March of 2007, the site boasted over 100 million monthly users worldwide before finally being overtaken as the most visited social networking site in Dec. 2008 by Facebook, a competitor site launched in Feb. 2004, only a month after the creation of MySpace.
In 2008, MySpace was the sixth most visited internet site in the entire world. As of Jan. 18, it has fallen to the 15th most visited site in the ranked statistics provided by Alexa, an information company that monitors the traffic of popular internet sites. The site that was once visited by over eight percent of all global internet users has dropped in traffic to under four percent.
"One of the reasons that MySpace dropped in popularity [since 2008] is that there are more options for social networking sites. Facebook, in particular, took a lot of business from them," sophomore Scott Peyatt said.
Senior Alex Tallarida, also cites competition as the reason for MySpace's dramatic decline in popularity.
"It was Facebook. When Facebook, which was originally a college site, started accepting members of all ages, a lot of people switched [to Facebook from MySpace]. Also, uploading pictures is faster [on Facebook]," Tallarida said.
In the "Press Room" section of its site, MySpace defines itself as "a technology company connecting people through personal expression, content and culture," that "empowers its global community to experience the Internet through a social lens by integrating personal profiles, photos, videos, mobile, messaging, games and the world's largest music community."
However, MySpace was much more than that. In addition to being a social networking site, as well as what RandomHistory.com refers to as "a media hosting site that is part chat room, part movie theater, part shopping mall, part bar and part concert that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year," MySpace also played a major part in bolstering the popularity of social networking sites, a trend continued from older, less popular sites such as Xanga and Friendster.
Launched in Jan. 2004, the social networking site MySpace reached the one million member mark the very next month. By Nov. 2004, the membership hit five million and MySpace Records, an original music label, was launched the following November. In March of 2007, the site boasted over 100 million monthly users worldwide before finally being overtaken as the most visited social networking site in Dec. 2008 by Facebook, a competitor site launched in Feb. 2004, only a month after the creation of MySpace.
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