It is no secret that MySpace is in steady decline. Years ago, MySpace was the king of social networking. Everybody and their brother had a MySpace account, and you were a nobody without one. However, today everything has changed. MySpace is losing roughly 5% of its visitor traffic each month, and it’s Alexa traffic ranking is down to 22, below such sights as WordPress and Blogspot. The reasons for this decline aren’t a mystery if you know what to look for.
The main reason for MySpace’s loss of members is because of capitalism. Strange as it may sound, you can apply Darwinian theories in this case to find your answer. MySpace is no longer the “strongest” social networking site around. Other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have been exploding in growth in recent years, all of which has further quickened MySpace’s decline.
To give an idea of the explosive growth of competitor sites like Twitter: in 2007, only 500,000 tweets were created per quarter. In the first quarter of 2010, 4 billion tweets were sent! Twitter’s current Alexa ranking is 11, half that of MySpace’s. Facebook as also seen staggering growth amounts, albeit not quite as impressive as Twitter. Facebook was launched in 2004, right around the height of MySpace’s dominance. Although initial growth was slow, Facebook now has over 400 million active users. Their Alexa rank is 2nd in the world, only behind search engine giant Google.
The main competitor to MySpace directly is Facebook. What causes so many ex-MySpace users to find their way onto Facebook? The answer may be right in front of your eyes. Many people have complained about MySpace’s cluttered website, advertisements and difficult to navigate interface. On the other hand, Facebook is generally less cluttered, more organized and easier to get around in that Facebook. Another common issue associated with MySpace is the amount of spam and friend requests that users receive from small start-up bands. Many bands will create a MySpace page to host their music on, but then bombard other users with friend requests and other annoying requests.
The most obvious reason is cause and effect. As people leave MySpace for Facebook, their friends are also forced to leave so they can stay in contact. As these people leave, their friends will also leave in an attempt to remain in contact. The cycle will continue until a whole array of people have left simply because their friends have left. Eventually, the only users left on MySpace will be bands and bots.
