Last week, MySpace got two major media hits for something besides predator scandals. Last week, MySpace got AP and the Wall Street Journal for two unrelated pieces of business news. Interesting, amid the continuing talk of a Facebook buyout.
The first MySpace announcement this week came over a partnership between that News Corp. holding and Skype (AP coverage here). The VP of product development for MySpace emphasized that the internet telephony technology would be fully incorporated into the MySpace experience.
Also in the AP story, but under the Skype news, MySpace signed a licensing agreement with Sony BMG. The agreement will allow for users to include video and music content in their profiles and the two companies will split the ad revenue. This announcement intentionally harkons to the original MySpace idea as a place for bands, though it's got all the spirit of "monetize your web 2.0 content" seminar, with the added bonus of major label quality.
In other MySpace news, Wall Street Journal tells us that games are coming soon (full story here). According to the WSJ piece, causal games accounted for 360 million in revenue last year. No doubt, MySpace is looking to share in the wealth.
Summation and thoughts: With Skype, a music / content deal and games, MySpace is formalizing what the open API did for Facebook. For Facebook, the API enabled users to add fun and greater personalization to their profiles. Personalization has never been lacking from MySpace, but News Corp is working to keep its social network market share and eyeballs for the ads, so it's adding in the fun. Has Facebook noticed the renewed MySpace effort? Perhaps. Will it slow Mr. Zuckerberg down?
Why don't you tell me.
