Facebook and MySpace to be new best buds?
If there was ever a pairing between two long time rivals that eventually kissed and made up, the rivalry between Facebook and MySpace would definitely not be near the top of my list list. But pigs are going to soon sprout wings and hell will in fact start freezing over (I can feel my feet getting cold as we speak) as Owen Van Natta, MySpace CEO has been officially quoted saying that they are “in talks” with Facebook exec’s. Similarly, Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg stated: “we would like to have MySpace’s content”.
Essentially, there are two paths two dueling companies can take when a winner and loser come forth. The losing company can take the legal route and start suing the winning company away. Or, the losing company can be bought/adopted/partner with the winning company. Thankfully for the sanity of consumers and to much delight from the poor judge who would have to oversee such a lawsuit, MySpace’s talking with Facebook could actually be an awesome thing for both companies and networks.
While MySpace has been losing on the general social networking front more noticeably in the last year, it isn’t necessarily solely because they stalled on the innovation front which in turn caused visitor numbers to plummet. Instead a “vision change” of sorts has been in the making. MySpace now is as they call it a media hub — a place for musicians and artists to showcase their talent with music and video taking a much larger presence than before. So MySpace would again enjoy huge visitor numbers and media spotlight in partnering with Facebook. So what exactly would Facebook gain?
Multimedia. Sure Facebook is the social networking champ with it’s main intentions being to communicate between people. Games have recently come into the fray though aren’t the bread and butter of FB. A partnership with MySpace would bring in (through Facebook connect I assume) a channel for a vast library of music and video that so far Facebook has been lacking in.
In the end, you have Facebook enjoying the spoils of victory, being the social networking champ with MySpace enjoying “being different” now. They don’t have to compete with Facebook anymore. Now MySpace can really focus on their strong points which as mentioned many times before are audio and video. It really is a win-win for everyone. Happy happy harmony for all. Of course, none of this is official with the comments of partnerships from both Facebook and MySpace exec’s all “off the record”. Still, the fact that they’re even hinting at such things has to mean something right?
Would you enjoy such a partnership?
