For nearly 2 years now, online and offline media has been obsessed with the success of MySpace, the social networking website that caters primarily to teenage and young adult demographics. Explanations for the phenomenal growth in traffic, page views per session, membership explosion and brandshare have been attributed to everything from the ugly design to the music industry affiliations to the youthful need for freedom of expresssion and the fact that Tom is everyone's friend. My theory runs a bit simpler - kids want to have sex and MySpace delivers.
If this explanation seems a bit crass, let's dive into some of the site's statistics to get a background on the user base (courtesy of Mr. Rubel):
- 61 + million registered users with 21+ million unique visitors
- Splits 50.2% male, 49.8% female
- Primary age demographic is 16-34
- Attracts 220,000 new registrants daily
- Rebellion against authority
- Curiousity about sex
- Obsession with certain members of the opposite (or in some cases the same) gender
- Dangerously high levels of hormones blocking many logical functions
- A community with millions of members of the desired age, gender & characteristics, most likely seeking the same goals
- Easy, free access
- Relative levels of anonymity if desired
- Ability to share personal information and view the personal details of others
If you're between the ages of 16 and 21, seeking an outlet for your hormones, MySpace offers a clear path to achieving those goals. Is it really any wonder that a user would jump through inordinate hoops, including poor design, horrific information architecture, a troublesome user experience and dificult-to-implement features if the potential gain includes a night of snogging with a pretty boy or girl?
I propose that MySpace succeeds not on the basis of marketing successfully, creating a great user experience, branding effectively or any other trait ascribed to it in the business and technology media. The source of their tremendous accomplishment relies instead on the value proposition offered to their users and the tenacity with which that goal will be pursued.
If I'm 17 years old and seeking someone with whom I can get together at the mall, kiss awkwardly and clamber into the back seat of mom's station wagon, there's no service (online or offline) that offers a better chance than MySpace.
With millions of incredibly passionate, motivated people all chasing this singular goal, is MySpace's success any surprise at all?
I don't necessarily agree with the "sex" argument in regards to the popularity among teens. I know that when I was 13 or so I was really excited about using chat rooms because, as an awkward teenager, I loved being able to chat with people (males) who were (supposedly) my age and wanted to talk to me/pay attention to me.
MySpace is the exact same thing. Young teenagers in high school may feel less inhibited talking to people that they may like online, and people who aren't super popular may feel a sense of relief that there's a medium available where they can talk to their peers, make friends, and maybe even improve their social skills. True, lots of people use MySpace as a means to hook up, but I think that it's more along the lines of late teens to early twenties. Younger teens are probably using it more for social interaction.
The rallying cry of early adopters of myspace was "it's better than friendster!" Friendster was at the time very popular but also very slow and unreliable. When myspace launched it offered similar features but wasn't constantly broken (it was only semi-constantly broken).
I'm surprised Matt didn't write this post. ;D
I'll admit that I used Geocities back in the day and that it was cool because it allowed me to easily set up my own page. When I was that age I didn't care what my website looked like as long as I could have a tiling background of Sailor Moon and a midi to go with it.
That being said, I HATE MYSPACE. Vehemently. It's just so... unevolved. I've seen maybe three out of a hundred myspace pages (regularly used) that don't make me want to smack the user for layouts that induce eye-bleeding and sheer personal vapidity. I guess my standards are just too high.
Moms drive SUVs now, not station wagons. Other than that, I thought it was all pretty funny. Thanks.
No, moms drive minivans.
Im' with Nadine... SUVs - lots of SUVs. But, the hibbity dibbity in the back of a station wagon just has a much more classic ring to it, IMO.
I drive a station wagon! Ewwwww...
Here's a very good essay about My Space vs. Friendster
It does a good job analyzing why My Space succeeded and Friendster failed in this same space.
I think we all could argue about this subject forever. Rand's point is that the "sex" element made MySpace what it is today. I somewhat agree to a certain extent. And with many of pages viewed online devoted to "sex" one way or another, it's no suprise. The "sex" element also increased the popularity of the internet in general. Many of the first internet users probably got online for this reason. We ARE humans, and whether we like it or not, we all think about three things. Eat, Sleep, & Sex. It's not unlike the popularity of our music, film, and television industries. However, MySpace IS much more than that, as is the internet.
The question I see is...wtf is going to happen to Myspace now? The government, with a stunning lack of understanding towards the Internet in general (as seen by the online gaming, series of tubes talks, barbie sex bans, etc), looks to be close to pushing through another law that might cut Myspace off at the knees. https://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6099414.html?...
https://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115395...
Edited link...
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I am getting the urge to say "great post rand!" even though I am against that type of silly praise for accurate blog evangelisms BUT you are exactly right Mr. Fishkin!!
In fact, everything is about sexy and the pursuit of.
This is also why I LOL when people waste all their time trying to figure Myspace out.
S
E
X
Good one!
Ok Rand, you've convinced me. I'm signing up today. ;)
This looks interesting: https://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=... What do wikipedia and myspace have in common?...
Sorry, Rand ... I gotta call BS on this one. Sure, MySpace offers all of those things, but so did a great many other websites both before and after. MySpace was successful because they catered to the lowest common denominator, and as those people started signing up, the network effect kicked in and they experienced the exponential growth we all dream about.
Bad Design was a symptom, not a cause (most kids wouldn't know good web/graphic design if it bit them in the behind). Music industry involvement was an outcome, not a cause (they just went where the people were). Sex most definitely has nothing to do with it, since there's nothing in MySpace that facilitates that. Doesn't hinder it either, but it certainly doesn't facilitate it, so I don't think you can point to it as a cause.
MySpace had a low barrier to entry, and hit right around the time that today's teens realized technology could be fun. IM is all well and good, but what do you do when you're at school and can't IM? Easy, just leave a message on your friend's MySpace. MySpace succeeded for the same reason that the SideKick, despite being needlessly crippled by T-Mobile, succeeded. It was so disgustingly easy to use that anyone could do it.
Wanna know what the next MySpace is going to be? Dogster. I kid you not ... Dogster has that same low barrier to entry, and connects with all of the animal-lovers (myself included). I set up a page in half an hour, and told my wife. She thought it was ridiculous. Then she started telling the other dog owners around her office, and they all thought it was awesome ... and now they all have Dogster pages.
Let's not overcomplicate or look for reasoning where there isn't any. MySpace did only one thing right, and that was making it easy enough to use that the AOL crowd could do it, and they got in early enough where they were more likely than not the place where your friends already were.
"easy to use," "low barrier to entry," and "hit right around the time that today's teens realized technology could be fun."
None of those are at all compelling to me. They may have facilitated growth, but why did people sign up in the first place? Why did they all hear about it?
It's because two years ago, kids started getting dates off MySpace. And one story of someone "scoring" off a website carries far and wide. A few hundred stories like it was all the site needed to infect itself into the consciousness of those seeking that same goal.
Except that not a single person I know of has ever gotten a date from MySpace. As a current college student, I know a lot of people on MySpace, and not a single one of them uses it as anything other than as a substitute for IM. They all consider it just an open diary, really. Most of the friends people have on MySpace are people they already know, and I don't know of a single person who would ever risk meeting someone new that they've only seen on MySpace. The stories about sex predators and whatnot that you see on Dateline are a statistical abberation, and I can't imagine that any legitimate encounters facilitated by MySpace are going to be much higher on the list.
I just can't grant your premise that sex was a factor. Yes, it was word-of-mouth that got the job done, not to mention network effects. But suggesting that sex was anything more than a coincidental outcome for a small percentage is ludicrous, and I have no doubt in my mind that the early movers were even less motivated by sex. Sure, the story might have gotten into people's heads, but that's just because that sort of stuff piques our interest. People still have to sign up, and if the other factors I cited were not in play, all of the "I got laid on MySpace" stories wouldn't have convinced people to sign up and USE the service.
I think you're taking this idea of making controversy and link bait a bit too far. Seriously, do you even really believe this theory, or are you just testing whether or not this article can get you linked on Digg? :) If you can prove me wrong, I'd love to see you cite a source showing blog posts or news stories about people getting laid through MySpace and a subsequent jump in membership.
Although I don't think sex was the only factor involved in myspace's success, I'd have to agree with Rand that it played a huge role. I know many people who have gone on myspace dates, myself included ( i went on quite the myspace rampage at one point :D )
The majority of the ads on myspace are geared around sex as well. I always see ads featuring photos of attractive young women enticing you to go meet them, find your "true" love, "meet her now", blah blah blah. I think the marketing people who put those ads together probably know exactly what people are looking for and play to that.
Again, I think the ads are an outcome as opposed to an indicator of intent. You advertise where the people are. One of the websites I write for is Planet GameCube, and we end up with a fair amount of those kinds of ads on our website as well. It's the popularity and traffic on the site, not the intent of people there that determine the ad content. :)
Although, I must say this ... as a geek, you're probably more apt to trust technology, and thus, your ability to judge people online. That being the case, answer me this ... was your intent when signing up for MySpace to get laid/a date? ;)
hell yeah!
*ahem*
I mean yes, back in the day that was my intent
Back in the day like it was ages ago...Matt is so wise in his years!
Uh, I know people who have gotten dates off MySpace. Lots of dates. It's not me. It's a friend. Seriously. This isn't an after school special thing where I say it's not me but it is me. I'll shut up now.
Myspace isn't JUST useful for sex, although I think that's what initially got the ball rolling. Most of my friends and siblings are on myspace and we use it to communicate. I'll post pictures of my latest adventures and they'll comment on it, bulletins are posted to announce upcoming events, and I've even found a few old classmates from grade school with it. This isn't to say that myspace is a good service, it's horrible. It just happens to have the biggest user-base so it's what we all ended up using. If everyone jumped ship to yahoo 360 or some other rival I'd gladly follow.
I wouldn't argue that this is the limit of MySpace's ability, nor was it something the founders intended when they made it. The user base was certainly important to development - I think they started with a good group by getting musicians and fans, groups that are... shall we say, less closed-minded than others regarding certain areas of activity?
Rand,
While I agree with the "What MySpace Provides", I think the best way to think of MySpace is that of a "living Yearbook" with the added qualities of being a scrapbook, communication tool, and a bullentin board.
I think that's very much reflected by what you find on MySpace:
You say something about yourself (blog poetry etc), post pictures of your last vacation to Florida, answer silly surveys with questions like 'what was your first kiss like', post snarky comments about how your friend puked all over his mom's kitchen that other night after downing jaigermeister, get to browse around other people's pages fairly freely (compared to Friendster et al) so you can snoop around and check people out, plan next month's party...and so on.
Like Oatmeal, I cant avoid using MySpace. All of my friends are on MySpace. Nowdadays, I'm more likely to get messages from my friends via MySpace comments or messages rather than getting an email.
Times are changin'
PS: See you guys at SES San Jose.
Anyone seen Matt's buddy list? Hmmmmmm...
haha..shut up, that is completely irrelevant to this discussion