Time to move on from MySpace?

[DavidR]

Ok, not move on, branch out...

I have seen people dicussing the growing popularity of MySpace-esque websites such as bebo, hi5, which seem to be gaining many users everyday. As someone has mentioned on this board, kids seem to be moving away from MySpace because it is becoming uncool now that many of their parents have profiles too...

Teens accounted for around 25% of users in August 2005, but now only represent 12% of the audience. Almost 41% of MySpacers are aged 35 to 54 - a big increase since last year. - Mashable! blog.

The decrease in teens slice of the pie maybe because more adults are using MySpace now as opposed to teens simply leaving MySpace. Either way, it could be seen as very uncool soon to have a MySpace profile. What teenager wants to conform with their parents?

Should MySpace site owners and people thinking about becoming a MySpace resource site owner start watching very closely at what MySpace-esque sites are doing and thinking about launching a site dedicated to one of them? Would now be a good time to get in there for when one of them booms?

Edit: I understand there is still good money to be had in MySpace resource sites, I certainly don't dispute that... but do you wish you'd started your site before the MySpace boom so you were ranked 1 in google or so you now got 2mil page views a day? Maybe there is a chance to have that for one of these other sites?

[Ted Hat]

I along with probably many others wish I had built MSRS sooner before all the competition. IN the past year ther has been a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE surge in the number of resource sites. It is staggering how many there are .

Also the top sites have PR6 yet only a year or so old whihc means they bought links .

[Scilynt]

Yeah, most people agree that it's a good idea to branch out regardless what myspace trends are going. I mean, why not go for that extra traffic anyway. Right now it only seems logical to target myspace users as regardless what the percentages of teens are, there are a TON of myspace users now and for a long while. It seems easier to add content and keywords for other networks as you learn about them than creating a specific site just for them.

But then again, getting a solid site in place for specific community sites early is also a good idea. But you might not bring in any real profits unless/until that site blows up with users. Might be a lot of work without any payoff as there seem to be as many myspace clones as anything. On my myspace site, I see a lot of different types of traffic from other community sites. My content can usually be used on most of them and the users know it. So even if they move from myspace to some other network, odds are they will still come to you to get content if they likded it before.

Also a good reason to keep your domains a bit more generic lol...makes changing direction a lot easier.

[Selena]

I agree. I was just in my journalism class today and some of the girls were talking about bebo. I was thinking..maybe I should expand to things like tagworld, friendster, and even the same old xanga. Who knows but i agree. Myspace is blown way out of proportion and not only the parent factor, but more and more teens (at least my friends) are realizing that myspace is overrated, and alll it is a page with pictures and your showing off who's more popular and has more comments.
But its the same for all the sites of that type, and people are going to slowly realize it, and move on to the next big thing.
I like having the generic name "radglitters" because people always like glitter graphics, and i'll probably buy a domain with layouts in it, but i think buying a "myspace" domain would be pointless, since it will blow over soon.

[Ted Hat]

Selina, does every post you make have to contain your site; radglitters?

Myspace and other social networking sites arent going way soon. The entire world will be using social networking. I plan to launch my own social networeking site in a year and eventualy file a public offering on the OTC or Nasdaq.

[LiamS]

I've always wondered if I should break into the Bebo market while I have the opportunity to. I haven't explored Bebo that much, but is it as flexible as MySpace?

There could be a huge market for Bebo, Friendster etc. resource sites. Perhaps this time next year there'll be Bebo resource scripts and MySpace would be a thing of the past?

[Connections]

I have tried to deal with bebo its very dodgey, I dont like it much at all...

I have a account on their I uploaded some pictures and then when I went back all my content on the account was deleted.

So I set up a new account.

[DavidR]

I've always wondered if I should break into the Bebo market while I have the opportunity to. I haven't explored Bebo that much, but is it as flexible as MySpace?

I went to some sites that do do bebo stuff, and found I had to download the layout pack instead of a cut and paste job. I don't know if bebo hosts the skin images, I think maybe it does because the site offered no hosting of the wallpapers and images. Also It seems you have to enter in the CSS yourself individually in dropdown menus, rather than paste the colour codes in.

[LinkPromo]

Same as every single tred in the teen world.... once it gets too mainstream the "cool" kids will find something else and people will gradually flock there.

Everyone should read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0316346624/sr=8-1/qid=1161084182/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7547349-5503331?ie=UTF8

Tipping Point. Awsome resource and a great read. Espically if you plan on tracking social trends.

[Ted Hat]

I dissagree

AIM and Hotmail has been around for many many years yet TONS of teens and people still use those services.

Same for myspace.

[Connections]

yes I dont think myspace will ever die out lol,

where I live in australia its still pretty popluar,

but yeah people are moving to bebo, the ones who try and act cool lol... too bad bebo has its own layouts integrated in the site, its has like a resource site in bebo it's self lol..their isnt much room for sites like MSRS...

bebo seems to want business for bebo and bebo only IMO...
I think user layouts on bebo look much more "cleaner" then 70% of myspace ones lol..

[DavidR]

Yeh I agree with pretty much all that people have said, on both sides. I don't see MySpace dying, I was more aiming my point that would now be a good time to beat the boom for other resource site pages.