Companies Look To Cash In On The MySpace Economy

Ramblings

from the strong-growth,-no-inflation dept

There’s been much made of the fact that winning products have the ability to spawn other industries, like every Adsense-driven web startup, all the peripherals for the iPod, and the various businesses of the eBay economy. Not surprisingly, the same is now happening with MySpace, as smaller companies look to profit from the popular site. Some are selling tools that help users improve their page’s visual design. Others are helping to make MySpace more manageable, with tools to organize a friend list. It’s a testament to the site’s structure that third parties can develop products to make it work better, a sharp contrast to Friendster, whereby the user is at the mercy of the company to roll out improvements. Businesses are also learning what bands have known for some time, that MySpace pages can be a good way to connect with fans or customers. Of course while many are trying to get in on the MySpace gravy train, there are some risks. It’s a risk to have one’s fortunes tied with a company that could lose popularity when the next big thing comes along. There’s also the possibility that MySpace itself will offer the same service to its customers, and block competitors. They already tried to do this with YouTube, blocking it briefly in hoping to boost their own service. Now how long before these third-party businesses start getting large buyout offers? Oh wait, that’s happening too.