MySpace

The case, set the end of 2007, examines what MySpace should the largest online network do to respond to its agile competitor Facebook. A phenomenal growth since its inception MySpace had experienced purchase 20 million members in its first 20 months of operation, and another 70 million a year later to become the most visited website in the United States. Its growth has come to a halt in mid-2007, just months after Facebook’s programming platform that allows outside program had released … Read more »

The case, set the end of 2007, examines what MySpace should the largest online network do to respond to its agile competitor Facebook. A phenomenal growth since its inception MySpace had experienced purchase 20 million members in its first 20 months of operation, and another 70 million a year later to become the most visited website in the United States. Its growth has come to a halt in mid-2007, just months after Facebook had its programming platform that allows outside programmers to build applications with their published data in social networks. The abundance of new applications on Facebook, the company was able to increase its membership by more than 15 percent in a month. To remain competitive MySpace had to release its own platform, and now it needs to decide whether to build their own proprietary application platform or OpenSocial, a Google-sponsored open-source platform.
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January Mikolaj Piskorski,
David Chen,
Carin-Isabel Knoop
Source: Harvard Business School
22 pages.
Release Date: 24, March 2008. Prod #: 708499-PDF-ENG
MySpace HBR case solution