Is It Too Late For A MySpace Developer Platform?
by
on October 10, 2007,
Today, Michael Arrington has suggested at TechCrunch that MySpace's developer platform will launch as soon as next week, most likely coinciding with the Web 2.0 Summit taking place in San Francisco from October 17-19. Not only that, but developers will reportedly have the ability to serve their own advertising within applications and keep 100% of the revenue, much like Facebook!
It was first mentioned that MySpace would introduce a developer platform back in June, when MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe told Financial Times that he thinks “the [Facebook] platform is interesting,” and that MySpace would follow suit.
My biggest concern with this however, is that MySpace should not be following in the footsteps of Facebook. MySpace had the opportunity to embrace third-party developers and to create an API long before Facebook even became the internet phenomenon that it is now. Their mistake was in trying to be too greedy. MySpace helped YouTube become a $1 billion hit without getting any profit for itself, which led to their somewhat extreme restrictions towards developers trying to make money through MySpace.
Come to think of it, this very action by MySpace could be what led to the massive flock of developers who created applications for the Facebook Platform shortly after its launch. But, as Peter Kafka notes, the surge of users and interest in Facebook is not actually from the developer platform release, but rather from “last fall, when the company opened up the site to all users.”
That's right… the popularity of the Facebook Platform seems to be a side effect of MySpace's defensive strategy, while the popularity of Facebook itself is due to the fact that anyone can now sign up.
“Developers may quickly climb aboard, then, in an effort to reach MySpace’s millions of users. Yet despite all the publicity it’s already generating, the move may not help much in terms of building (and/or retaining) MySpace’s user base,” stated Doug Caverly of WebProNews. “The social network’s messy pages already had people fleeing to Facebook; with a flood of new apps, it’s not likely that things will get any neater.” I couldn't agree more, as this is my primary reason for choosing Facebook over MySpace.
So, what exactly is MySpace trying to do with it own developer platform? They appear to be under the notion that a developer platform helped expand Facebook and can do the same for MySpace. While it is good to see the largest social network open up and give more opportunities to developers, it may be too late and MySpace executives have no one to blame but themselves for not being the pioneer who others are following. Their focus should be elsewhere now, such as on developing a better interface for profiles.
Do you think MySpace has a chance at catching up with Facebook? Or is this just a plea not to be forgotten?
