Will Skype Give Myspace The Edge?
Will Skype Give Myspace The Edge?
October 18, 2007: Popular internet telephone provider, Skype’s partnership with the social network Myspace has been the talk of the town, but it comes as Facebook continues to record yet another week of record growth.
When you’re combining the twin success stories of social networking force, Myspace and the internet telephony giant Skype, you’re bound to have a lot of intense speculation as to the potential of the outcome. What hasn’t been recognised is that although this will no doubt boost Myspace and Skype respectively, rival social networking company Facebook have slid into 7th position in Alexa’s top site ranking, directly behind Myspace who is in 6th. The partnership will see Skype voice features incorporated into Myspace's IM client, allowing Skype and Myspace users to call eachother for free.
"It seems pretty clear what MySpace gets out of this deal: a competitive differentiator. MySpace is big and still fast-growing; but it has been feeling heat from the more rapid audience growth seen by rival Facebook in recent months.” Says John Delaney, Principal Analyst at Ovum.
In many respects Facebook is the challenger in the tussle for social networking dominance and has been continuing its meteoric growth in users. This growth has been alarming for Myspace, who is staring down the barrel of losing their top slot and each day Facebook draws even closer.
Facebook’s rapid growth can be attributed to its growing acceptance among professionals, as it doesn’t carry the stigma of being associated with teenage users like Myspace. Whilst both social networking sites do in fact carry users of all age groups, there is a noticeable trend where Facebook is heavier in older age groups and Myspace in the younger.
“MySpace needs to regain some of the initiative. We think that incorporating Skype into its profile pages could prove an effective way of doing that. Communication is an essential element of what people do in social networks.” Delaney explained.
Whether or not this will be enough to surge Myspace ahead remains to be seen, it’s one of many initiatives Myspace is launching to keep its growth going and preserve its quickly eroding lead on Facebook.
“It’s likely, then, that the main benefit that Skype will get from this deal is not money, but brand exposure. Most of MySpace’s users are in the US, and Skype’s brand has not been as strong in that market as it is in Europe. The ability to link MySpace profiles and content with a Skype account, in particular, may prove to be an important means of boosting the number of US consumers who are aware of and use Skype.” Said Delaney.