Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Viacom vs. News Corp. on Social Networking

Posted by Zonk on Thu Mar 02, 2006 11:36 AM
from the feel-the-neopet-love dept.
The Internet Businesses
dolphinlover writes "The purchase of MySpace.com by Robert Murdoch's News Corporation last year for $580 million has caught the attention of another media conglomerate, Viacom Inc., whose CEO, Tom Freston, has now announced his intentions to purchase or partner with a social networking site this year in order to enhance the company's image with youth. Whether it will also be successful monetarily has yet to be seen, as MySpace.com only had $47 million in revenue in 2005 based on advertising. This news follows Viacom's acquisition of Neopets.com in 2005. For those companies already heavily involved in television and movies, expanding their presence to the Internet provides a new opportunity to gain a foothold over the competition."

Related Stories

[+] Your Rights Online: MySpace Users Revolt Against Murdoch 393 comments
arclightfire writes "Looks like Murdoch's News International have stired up a revolt within users of the MySpace file-sharing site they purchased for $629m (£355m) last July, reports the Independent; "Angry members of MySpace, the personal file-sharing website for young adults, are accusing Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation of censoring their postings and blocking their access to rival sites. The 38 million subscribers to MySpace...discovered that when they wrote to each other about rival video-swapping site YouTube, the words were automatically deleted, and attempts to download video images from YouTube led to blank screens. The intervention by News Corp in the traditionally open-access world of the web - in particular the alteration of personal user profiles - provoked a storm of angry posts...The protests gathered pace, and when 600 MySpace customers complained and a campaign began to boycott the site and relocate to rival sites such as Friendster, Linkedin, revver.com and Facebook.com, News Corp relented and restored the links.""
[+] MySpace Fears, Just Another Backlash? 308 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Wired takes a hard look at all the hype about MySpace being a danger to teens, and concludes it's just another backlash against technology and youth culture. The most damning evidence against MySpace are the recent cases of men arrested for dating underage girls they met through the site, but statistically these cases are a drop in the bucket. From the article: 'In fact, with a reported population of 57 million users, MySpace is arguably safer from such crime than other communities that haven't been the subject of the same scrutiny. One example: California, which averaged 62 statutory rape convictions per month in the late 90s, in a state population of 33 million.'"
[+] The MySpace Generation 427 comments
theodp writes "They live online. They buy online. They play online. Their power is growing. BusinessWeek reports on The MySpace Generation, aka Generation @, for whom being online is a way of life. Preeminent among the virtual hangouts is MySpace.com, who boasts 40 million members and claimed the No. 15 spot on the entire U.S. Internet. And in When murder hits the blogosphere, MSNBC reports on MySpace's sometimes surreal role in popular news stories."
[+] Games: The Cult of the NeoPet 40 comments
Wired is running an article examining the ups and downs of the Neopet Addiction. The overly cute online 'game' mostly consists of teaching kids to look at ads, but somehow has developed a large following online. From the article: "A generation agrees. Neopets has a staggering 25 million members worldwide. It has been translated into 10 languages and gets more than 2.2 billion pageviews per month. These dedicated Neopians spend an average of 6 hours and 15 minutes per month on the site. That makes Neopets the second-stickiest site on the Internet - ahead of Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and eBay, according to Media Metrix. What's more, its demographics are the stuff of marketers' dreams: Four out of five Neopians are under age 18, and two out of five are under 13." Relatedly, Kotaku has a quick blurb about the Scientology backdrop against which this cuteness is projected. Update: 12/09 19:14 GMT by Z : Fixed broken link. There's a bug there, methinks.
[+] Facebook On The Block 250 comments
conq writes "BusinessWeek reports that Facebook has turned down an offer for $750 million and is looking for 2 billion dollars. The article speculates that one possible suitor would be Viacom. From the article: 'A Facebook deal would help Viacom founder and Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone fend off a growing challenge from News Corp. The media conglomerate run by Rupert Murdoch has poured enormous resources into the Internet during the last year. It acquired social-networking pioneer MySpace.com last year for $580 million.'"
[+] Games: Viacom Buys Xfire For $102 Million 29 comments
The New York Times is reporting that communications company Viacom has purchased the Xfire gaming network for $102 Million. From the article: "Judy McGrath, the chief executive of MTV Networks, which will oversee Xfire, said it would stay focused on building a community for game players, but its technology might be adapted for broader network services. Xfire has attracted four million users since it was introduced in 2004. Of those, one million are active and spend 91 hours each month using the service. The company sells advertising on its software and Web site, both to video game makers and to mass market marketers, including Dodge, Pepsi and Unilever."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Viacom vs. News Corp. on Social Networking | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 65 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold:
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • Make media that the "youth" like.

    News Corp is kicking ass in the 18-25 market right now with shows like American Idol. And they're also nailing those elusive male 18-40 year olds with shows like 24 and the Shield (best show on TV, imho).

    Plus, they have the Simpsons.

  • Where by "Robert"... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Omega697 (586982) on Thursday March 02 2006, @11:41AM (#14835418)
    You mean "Rupert."
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Could this be the sign of yet another bubble forming???
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  • Meetup.com (Score:4, Interesting)

    by adubey (82183) on Thursday March 02 2006, @11:46AM (#14835468)
    I'm a meetup.com organizer, I just got an (bulk) email today from the CEO suggesting they might be partering/being bought by a major media organization.

    Quite a coincidence this is being announced on the same day.
    • Re:Meetup.com by ScottCooperDotNet (Score:2) Thursday March 02 2006, @01:44PM

  • "only" $47 million in revenue in 2005 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xiando (770382) on Thursday March 02 2006, @11:49AM (#14835502)
    (http://en.xiando.org/ | Last Journal: Wednesday May 18 2005, @07:44AM)
    "only" $47 million in revenue in 2005? I'm fairly sure I could pay the rent and eat nice dinners every day with $47 million yearly..

  • How MySpace.com could make more revenue (Score:1)

    by paladinwannabe2 (889776) on Thursday March 02 2006, @11:56AM (#14835567)
    They could always start selling personal information off the site to spammers, credit card companies, and advertisers of all sorts... they could even encourage people to take "polls" about what products they prefer, allowing for even more targeted ads. As long as they don't screw up, I can see MySpace.com bringing in lots of advertising revenue.

  • Fox promoting MySpace (Score:3, Informative)

    by kevin_conaway (585204) on Thursday March 02 2006, @12:05PM (#14835665)
    (http://pyscrabble.sf.net/)
    I've noticed that Fox and Fx have been promoting MySpace heavily by creating MySpace pages for its television shows.
  • in order to enhance the company's image with youth.

    That's the point. If your company's image is an important part of making money in your other ventures, then the vehicle you use to do that doesn't have to make money. If it does, or even just supports itself, so much the better. It's like getting other companies to pay for your commercials.

    And this Internet thing might just amount to something.

  • Revenue *is* the point (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02 2006, @12:16PM (#14835778)
    As an ex-News Corp employee, I can tell you that in the case of myspace, revenue is definitely the point. News Corp sees Myspace as a perfect avenue to use for cross-promotion of its TV shows and all other media. It would like to use it to sell videos, music, anything that is owned by umbrella companies and has a price tag. I don't think that sheer and utter commercialization will work though - myspace is not a webstore. It was always my opinion that kids are fickle - push their buttons too hard or try to force something on them and they will just find another online haven. News Corp have been treading lightly because they finally clicked on to this, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the end game is total commercialization of myspace.

    • Re:Revenue *is* the point (Score:4, Interesting)

      by L7_ (645377) on Thursday March 02 2006, @01:17PM (#14836290)
      the problem is, just how far do the companies have to go before they start to 'push buttons'? kids are damn fickle, they also follow the crowd... unless another online haven pops up to fill the role of myspace where everyone else goes, then noone will bother to move. In fact, it is almost like myspace is so entrenched as _the_ social networking site, that noone will ever be able to replace it entirely in the foreseeable future. unless, of course, they make it pay to play then it will die faster than something that dies really fast.

      if orkut (i dont know about this, ive never been invited) went the way of myspace and started heavily recruiting profiles made along with the tight integration of every other google service, then i could see people moving over to that. but its been out for a while now, and noone that i know uses it. nor do you ever hear people in restaraunts talking about it like you do myspace. with the current recruitment model it cant replace myspace.

      facebook.com seems to have a way better interface and integration than myspace, and it is slowly growing people profiles as they pass through college and keep thier accounts. but again, what makes it good is the niche market for students (im not even sure if HS students can profile there) and the way that they keep non-.edu emails from registering. again, it will never replace myspace for the 25+ somethings, but for college students it is used pretty much a lot more than myspace (where people seem okay with posting more personal information there).

      i cant comment on friendster or linkedin or whatever else there is out there. unless someone recommends them to me or i see the network through random surfing, then i dont really care. :\
      [ Parent ]
      • Orkut... by aws910 (Score:1) Friday March 03 2006, @12:38AM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  • Who owns who? (Score:2)

    by Qwavel (733416) on Thursday March 02 2006, @12:28PM (#14835869)
    My question is bit off-topic, but important I think.

    Is there any relationship between news corp and news.com?

    Is there a site that outlines the relationships between the different major media companies (particularly the online ones)?

    I'm finding that it is important to know these things in order to interpret the online news.

  • can only be one leader at a time (Score:4, Interesting)

    by peter303 (12292) on Thursday March 02 2006, @12:29PM (#14835880)
    Since social networking depends on the completeness of its network, people are going to flock to whatever appears to be the leader in the niche. Its like a new auction site competing against eBay - not much room for #2.

    Facebook gained market because of its restriction to a well-defined subcommunity. I am not sure why MySpace gained market, other than being easy to set up. Its predecessor Friendster was too sluggish and GeoCities too complicated (and crushed by ads after the Yahoo takeover).

  • Please... (Score:1)

    by badfish274 (924161) on Thursday March 02 2006, @12:38PM (#14835945)
    (http://jonlev.com/)
    ...don't let them take Facebook. Delightfully void of *HORRIBLE* HTML stylings, whiny pre-teens, those godawful "bulletins", and a smooth, clean, reliable interface.
    • Re:Please... by lowrydr310 (Score:2) Thursday March 02 2006, @01:30PM
      • Re:Please... by Manmademan (Score:1) Thursday March 02 2006, @05:52PM

  • Now, with more ads (Score:2)

    by Animats (122034) on Thursday March 02 2006, @01:04PM (#14836181)
    (http://www.animats.com)
    Tribe just did a site makeover. The main change is that you have to view more pages to find anything, thus resulting in more ad displays. Users hate the new format.

    Myspace will probably get worse to become "competitive".

    Social networking should be peer to peer. There's no piracy issue; it's all about ME. No problems with the RIAA or MPAA. There's an open source project for somebody.

  • Enhancing Viacom's image with youth (Score:1)

    by snorkybluefog (958486) on Thursday March 02 2006, @01:33PM (#14836456)
    Maybe Viacom can just start by not suing everyone and trying to take away fair usage rights.

  • I fully support this... (Score:1)

    by le0p (932717) on Thursday March 02 2006, @02:39PM (#14837046)
    as long as whatever site they buy prevents users from creating the most obnoxious pages on the internet.
  • Viacom which owns networks like MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and online properties like ifilms and neopets - their prime target is already teens and youth. If they marry it social networking they will be able to tap the full potential or their online properties and TV networks.

    They can use the integrated networks for variety of reasons - other than feeding audiences to each other. Like contests, talent hunt, amateur media, selling music, etc.

    I am seeing a trend where new media won't be competing with the traditional media, infact traditional media owners will converge to new media and would become the owner there also. No matter, citizens are turning into producers, but the power still lies in the hands of the DISTRIBUTORS

    Santosh @ Newsmotto [newsmotto.com]
  • Maybe you have stupid kids.

    Given this, I wouldn't let them dress themselves for fear they might cause pain or injury.
    [ Parent ]
  • 11 replies beneath your current threshold.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.