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MySpace vs Friendster: The curse of complacency
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Friendster was the MySpace of yesterday, however it fell behind due to its arrogance and complacency towards users. Will MySpace follow?
In 2001, a US entrepreneur came up with the idea of creating a website that would echo the real-world way people meet – through their friends. In August 2002, the site went live, pioneering the online social networking sector. The concept was such a hit that, in 2003, Google offered to buy it for a cool $30,000,000. The offer was turned down. The site remained the top online social network service until around April 2004 when it was overtaken by MySpace. That site was Friendster.
Since then, Friendster has been positively eclipsed by MySpace, which now has more than 50 times the number of monthly domestic visitors as its predecessor (comScore Media Metrix, 2006).
Friendster has become the archetypal tale of unrealised potential in the online world. Why? Because it failed to listen.
In an environment where creative freedom is everything, it dared to dictate, evicting users who put up photos of their dogs instead of themselves, or who attempted to use the platform to launch their garage bands. MySpace, in stark contrast, let chaos reign, encouraging users to do pretty much as they pleased.
The history of the web is littered with the debris of ‘could-have-beens’ like Friendster. The lesson is clear: there is no room for arrogance online. More so than in any other channel, complacency in this space is commercial suicide.
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