Rupert and News Corp take it in the booty over..

[Uncle Pervey]

MySpace.

News Corp Dumps MySpace for Pennies on the Dollar | Epicenter*| Wired.com

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

A day after Google went public with a tilt at Facebook, today’s dominant social network, News Corp has found a buyer for MySpace, the ruling online hangout of yesteryear. The selling price is said to be between $30 million and $40 million — at best about 7 cents on the dollar News Corp paid six years ago.

The news comes from the Wall Street Journal, like MySpace also a division of News Corp. No official word yet from either party.

When Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate bought MySpace for $580 million in 2005 it was the place to be online. As recently as 2008 it was still the top locale. But in April of that year Facebook surged and left MySpace in the dust. And according to the Law of the Digital Jungle — there can be only one über-dominant social network/search engine/word processor — that meant that the inexorable MySpace death spiral had begun.

For the hardy, well-heeled, and focused, however, it isn’t game over in the social media space. The smartphone app-driven environment is invigorating niche networks for sharing based on limited circles (Path), media (Instagram) and proximity (Color).

It isn’t clear what Specific Media has in mind for MySpace, which remains a popular site for indie bands. It could lower its profile and exploit that strength to the exclusion of all other ambitions. Even with with a $40 million pricetag, this reformulated niche social network would be a cheaper startup than Color, which has yet to get much traction, and a much better known, albeit tarnished, brand. Heck, former Wired.com music tech writer and current Evolverfm.com editor Eliot Van Buskirk argued months ago MySpace should actually turn band pages into apps.

While MySpace may forever remain the worst digital investment ever made by News Corp the experience didn’t deter Murdoch from making another big bet just this year with the launch of The Daily. The iPad-only publication has cost the company 10s of millions of dollars and while News Corp does not break out subscribership or the financials for the division (one could argue they might if the news was good), but an analysis in April by the Neiman Lab suggests a downward trajectory.

And then there is Google, which only Tuesday unveiled its own full-service social network, Google+. The search giant isn’t calling “+” a Facebook killer, but they don’t need to. The law of the digital jungle will sort it all out in due course

[MrPeabody]

Same thing will happen to Facebook eventually.

[C5SilverBullet]

If anyone can take on Facebook, it is Google.

[Joecooool]

Originally Posted by MrPeabody

Same thing will happen to Facebook eventually.

If Facebook can evolve and keep up with what its people want, then it may survive.

[mrvette]

Originally Posted by Joecooool

If Facebook can evolve and keep up with what its people want, then it may survive.

Sounds like THE #ONE trouble with the electronics industry in general...to ME, anyway....

electronics is a no commitment industry....800 bux for a TV/computer you can hit the switch with and roll over sleeping is one thing...disposable entertainment.....CARS and work transportation is another....

800 bux for a console color TV was a LOT in '60 or so....

today the same bux are not nearly so meaningful....but a vette was ~3 grand in '60....today it's 60 grand....20X.....

so it's computer programming, so what??? same disposable shit, same like TV programming....

[SnikPlosskin]

FBs demise will be it's obsessive need to be everything to everyone. The interface is one of the worst ever. When someone comes out with a simple to use social networking site (one my mom can figure out) it will be huge.

FB is a mess.

[TooManyIDs]

Originally Posted by MrPeabody

Same thing will happen to Facebook eventually.

[Uncle Pervey]

Originally Posted by Thrakk

FBs demise will be it's obsessive need to be everything to everyone. The interface is one of the worst ever. When someone comes out with a simple to use social networking site (one my mom can figure out) it will be huge.

FB is a mess.