MySpace announced their awaited refocus yesterday. This refocus: no surprise, is back to their roots of Gen Y music-oriented people. Their new president, Michael Jones, is quoted as saying, “Over time, MySpace got very broad and lost its focus…” Ya think!
MySpace was compared to Facebook, and then began to try to compete with Facebook. Both are social media sites, but with fundamentally different purposes. As MySpace tried to become more like Facebook (which has a potentially broader audience appeal), all they did was not attract Facebook interested people, and alienate the people who actually liked MySpace the way it was. Really bad strategy.
They have gone back to their original focus, and Jones says that’s ok because “Niche players have longer staying power.” Well that’s not true, but MySpace had no staying power as a Facebook ”look-alike.” Only time will tell whether it will have staying power with its current focus or adaptations as required .
But, as I have said in many other posts, focus is power.
