A few theories…
“Is it the next media platform–a new company with the reach and influence of an NBC? Does its phenomenal ascendance and enormous population of demographically perfect users mean it is the platform that will usher in a new golden age for marketers. What they last saw in the 1950’s with television and its ability to reach 75% of the viewing audience at a single moment? Is MySpace the next television?
Or it is not the network but rather the hot show–the Mickey Mouse Club or Davy Crockett that sold millions of mouse-eared hats and coon-skin caps. The kids across America who watched these shows were the canaries in the marketing coalmines (pardon my own metaphors), giving advertisers a glimpse into the power of that new medium to create and drive buying behavior from the ground up. Before then, kids were an elusive target and, a few decades later, were so bombarded with advertising that no one message carried as much weight. Is MySpace a glorified, 24/7 Mickey Mouse Club?”
Mike:
“Why hasn’t MySpace bought up LinkedIn or launched a competing service with better features? How about kids.myspace.com, teen.myspace.com, and college.myspace.com? Where is the corporate instances of social networking? Why not turn it into a CRM tool to compete with industry products? These things will happen eventually.”
Further reading: Social Networking for Businesses and Associations
I should note that social networking will evolve, but MySpace may or may not be part of that paradigm shift. It all depends on their business practices. For all we know they may choose to sit comfortably and watch as others erode their market share.