The Rise and Fall of Myspace

At its peak in 2008, MySpace had 75.9 million visitors a month and represented the most diverse social networking site of its time. Indeed, it was the pioneer in the new era of online information sharing, as in its ever-expanding scope it included not only pictures and messaging, but moving stickers and, perhaps most importantly, music. As a consequence of these features, MySpace very quickly gained popularity amongst the younger generation; the majority of its users were between 16 and 25, which is considered the key demographic to reach when it comes to online media. The initial popularity of this site is owed to not only the sheer fact of the ease of communication which it presented, but also the trend of discussing one’s interests using forum posts and the eventual decision of unsigned upcoming artists to post their music on the site (such as the Arctic Monkeys in 2005). The platform allowed its users to buy music using PayPal, which also greatly boosted its user base. As a result of the extensive amount of facilities available as part of MySpace, it soared to popularity quickly and yet almost just as quickly lost its users, causing the number of visitors per month to drop to just 3.3 million by 2010.

The reasons for this loss of popularity are numerous, but in the end MySpace was crippled mostly by two things; the rise of its greatest competition, Facebook, and by the naturally-occurring shift in its age demographic. Every website inevitably ages unless it adapts to attract the next generation, and MySpace failed to do just that, surrendering the majority of its users to the more advanced and newer social networking site, Facebook, which started up in 2008. This also clearly correlates with the steady decline in its user base since its aforementioned peak year. MySpace simply did not have the vision or funds to keep up with Facebook, which already had the advantage of being drawing the public eye just by being new. However, when most of the younger population of MySpace left for a more advanced platform, they were also leaving due to the fact that MySpace had become mundane enough to society to draw middle-aged users. As a rule, younger people refuse to share their space with those who are of the same age demographic as their parents, and the fact that MySpace had become so integrated meant that the younger users were even more eager to leave.

DY