MySpace’s co-founder has capitulated in the social networking war, admitting his site will never beat Facebook in both popularity and number of users. The Newscorp-owned social networking site and Facebook have about 280 million active users. But in an interview with the Herald Sun, MySpace co-founder Brett Brewer says Facebook dominates the social networking sector.
“There’s a fundamental shift going on,” Brewer said. “Both sites are… different. We built MySpace for people to find and connect with people they don’t know. Facebook is… built around connecting with people you already know.
“Clearly, the world eagerly embraced MySpace, but as the average person has adopted social networks, where they come to first is making connections with the people they already know. Facebook has done an excellent job of capitalising on that.”
Nielsen Online figures also show Facebook is surging ahead in popularity, calculating two million new users between 2007 and 2008, while MySpace lost 400,000 users in the same period.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
