A Brief History on Yesterday’s Social Networking King – Myspace

In 2003, eUniverse launched a new platform that enabled individuals to interact with each other over the Internet. Within a short span of time, the platform allured millions. Internet users were already beginning to get bored with the traditional email and chat. This platform named Myspace managed to move to the top of the list even though similar ones like Friendster were already in the market. Years rolled by and in 2007, Myspace clearly became the king of social networking with more than 100 million users.

Today’s Critical Care Unit Patient – Myspace

Myspace (Now My_____) was dethroned by Facebook in 2009. Furthermore, Myspace is now in the ventilator. With losses of around $150M a quarter, its immediate owner Rupert Murdoch is looking left and right to get rid of this dying patient. Below is Hitwise data that shows the rise of Facebook (blue line) and the decline of Myspace (green line) over the years 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The main source of revenue for Myspace was from ads. The eMarketer data released in Jan 2011 shows the decline of ad revenues for Myspace and increase of ad revenues for Facebook.

What Went Wrong For MySpace?

A Competitive Intelligence analyst would be able to find the reasons for this decline of Myspace. Let’s list some of them here and learn from the mistakes of this one-time king of Social Networking.

Did not track its reputation

Users of Myspace always had the freedom to go beyond limits inside and outside Internet. When limits were crossed, the media was on the toe to spoil the reputation Myspace had earned. Unfortunately News Corp, the then owner of Myspace did not respond well to set right its loss in reputation. This resulted in reduction in traffic to the site and hence the revenue. Legal issues arose that had to be settled. The settlement with Universal Music Group was in millions. If the management had tracked their brand periodically, the damage could have been avoided or at least reduced.

Did not track new trends

Trends in market were changing the perspectives of social networking. Separate platforms began to emerge for different communities. Youtube for videos, Linkedin for professionals, Picassa for photos; Myspace did very little to convince its users with its features. It did very little to stay ahead of any new trends that rocked the market. Even though the site had the finest of the codes, there was lack of renovation in user interactivity which made Myspace look dull. Renovation would have been part of core team’s activity if latest trends in the market were periodically tracked.

Lack of in-depth analysis of its competitors

When there was a need to do something to stay alive, Myspace announced a complete redesign to its website. Any redesign requires comprehensive analyses before implementation so that there would be user acceptance. Unfortunately Myspace had to be moved to the ventilator when media hyped the redesign as a copy of Facebook. This copycatting image of Myspace completely spoiled the reputation of the one-time king. Another area where there was lack of in-depth analyses could be identified in the customization freedom given to its users. Too much customization options made the site look scrambled under many profiles. Both these instances were result of lack of proper analyses before implementing a strategy.

Sleeping while others were awake at night

There were many new players in the social media market in 2006. Facebook’s growth in traffic was witnessed by the entire world. Pioneers of social networking like Friendster and leaders of the web like Yahoo, tried to acquire Facebook. This clearly sent signal about a rising rival to Myspace. But those who had to respond to the signals were sleeping. Had they been awake, they would have sensed the danger to their throne.

Management’s pessimistic approach

Other than the Google – MySpace partnership, we have to admit that Myspace has not dealt with its issues in an optimistic way. Since Rupert Murdoch had profit in his other businesses, he had been deliberately looking to sell Myspace right from the time he faced threat from Facebook. He removed top guys like Tom Anderson who were very instrumental in bringing Myspace to the top. Myspace had never been given to young hands who could probably match to the brilliance of Mark Zuckerberg. The age factor is evident in the website for any analyst. Had the approach of Murdoch and team been different, Myspace would have still remained competitive to its rivals.

What’s The Urgent Need For Your Business?

Myspace is one example. There are many companies which have collapsed. Giants like Lehmann Brothers, Daewoo may have been in news. But there are thousands of small businesses that have collapsed in the last decade. So what must a small business do to continuously grow without experiencing catastrophes? The role of Competitive Intelligence team answers this question. Periodic reports produced by this team are vital for the existence and growth of any business. Below are few basic reports that are prepared by this analysis team.

Competitor News Report

The competitor news report can be prepared weekly or monthly depending on the frequency in which competitors make their move in your market. The report tracks every move of your direct competitors. Any mile stone achieved or any financial progress announced by them will be traced. The report will also identify new players in your market and their growth tracked in further reports.

Market Trends Report

The market trends report keeps you informed of the latest happenings in your market. The report tracks the value of your market periodically. The report also collects relevant information that forecasts the future of your product market. It also keeps you updated with different strategic changes that get accepted and rejected in the market.

Product Analysis Report

The product analysis report is the most important of all. It is a comprehensive feature by feature analysis of your product. This report will identify the major players in your market and also give an idea of how the leaders present the product to its prospects.

For more information on these reports and the complete role of Competitive Intelligence team in a business, contact QBurst team.

What is Competitive Intelligence?

Working as a Competitive Intelligence analyst, I am able to see Competitive Intelligence as an important organ in the business body. Wikipedia defines CI as ‘The action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization.’ Competitive Intelligence reports are mainly prepared for a product that a company might be offering. Not restricted to this, there are market reports, company profile analyses and many others that a CI Analyst prepares for his company. Few product reports focused on web products that support senior level management are listed.

1. Feature Analysis Report – This is a comprehensive analysis which helps the management to view all available features of any product and their distribution across various competitors.
2. Positioning Report – The way a product is messaged in the web varies from competitor to competitor. The reader of this report gets an overall picture of how the product is presented and messaged by the leading players in the market.
3. Marketing Analysis Report – This report covers the various marketing strategies used by competitors to promote the product.
4. Pricing & Discount Report- The pricing methodology used has to be easily understood by the customer. In other words, the most prevalent methodology used in the market has to be followed in order to remain competitive. This report helps the management to satisfy its customers with pricing.
5. Competitor News Report – Latest trends in the market, new initiatives to promote the product and every move the competitors make. This report has them all.

Competitive Intelligence Analyst and Business Intelligence Analyst

CI analysts are often considered similar to BI analysts. Although both these professionals aim to support business decision making, they vary in the way they work. The table below has few differences.

Competitive Intelligence Tools

There are tools available for CI analysts to aid in the Intelligence work. Here are a few of them.

• Similar Sites – This tool helps in Competitor Identification phase. It identifies websites of companies offering similar products.
• Crunchbase – A directory maintained by Techcrunch; this tool helps in Competitor Identification phase.
• Compete – The Company with more customers has more visits to its website. Compete tool helps in Competitor Culling phase to filter companies before Feature Capturing phase.
• Copernic Tracker – Offers, discounts, seasonal changes get reflected in the company website. Copernic tracker tool tracks any change in the website and is mainly supportive for the Competitor News reports.
• KeywordSpy – Marketing in the internet is mainly done by promoting the product for keywords in various public portals. This tool gives data on efforts made by competitors in popular portals thereby helping in Product Marketing reports.
• Forrester – Trends, market predictions, competitor performance, researches by senior analysts; here we get information needed for any Market Analysis report.

CI Reports – The Making

CI reports go through many phases before it reaches the senior management team. After every phase, the report gets its version number incremented. Here let us get a glimpse of how a product feature analysis report is prepared. A successful product feature analysis report (useful for the management team to make strategic decisions) should have gone through the following phases.

1. Competitor Identification Phase
2. Competitor Culling Phase
3. Feature Capturing Phase
4. Value Propositions Identification Phase
5. Categorisation and Simplification Phase
6. Data to Graph Phase
7. Change Demanding Points Presentation Phase
8. Report Aesthetics Phase

If you like to know these phases in detail, you can contact us. We would be glad to educate and help you take right decisions in your business. The team @ QBurst has been providing intelligence to some of the leading tech companies like Network Solutions and ClearSpring. Our experience will certainly help you grow in your business.

Apple is all set to unveil their breakthrough product Apple Tablet / iSlate. Amidst the  uncertainties and rumors crawling around the product, technology addicts are eagerly waiting to get a glimpse of the device. The launch is planned for 27th January 2010 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. The main theme of the event is “latest creation”, which may showcase extreme functionalities of the device. A CNBC interview excerpt gives confirmation from McGraw-Hill’s CEO that Apple Tablet will soon capsule their text books. It is also understood that the Apple iSlate will be an iPhone OS based machine and hence the contents will be transferable. McGraw-Hill considers this feature will  be really helpful in penetrating the professional education market.

The device is expected to deliver a combined functionality of an iPhone and Mac Book. However, it remains to be seen whether the device is compatible with the existing apps available through the App Store.

The rumors with respect to the price tag is speculated to be around $1000 / £600. Another uncertainty is that the Tablet is said to feature an OLED screen which alone would cost  $400. There are also rumors that iSlate will be available in more than one version, even with an LCD touch screen.

Ever Thought Of Locating Your Twitter On Your Mobile Phone Even Without a GPRS Subscription?

This concept has become a reality in India with the Shorthand mobile SMS browser introduced by the Shorthand Mobile-India(www.shorthandmobile.in), a subsidary of Smarttouch mobile Inc.. The browser once downloaded will connect you to your desired web content just through a text sms. Yes, it’s that simple!

The desired web contents are stored as SMS Apps and are listed in the Shorthand browser for easy scroll and click. The users have to just scroll down to their SMS App and click the same to access the online network. The web content is located as soon as the browser sends the text message. Hence, it does not require an active data plan.

Main Features
Apart from the general SMS Apps, Shorthand has a rich GUI that makes the platform more interesting and user friendly. Apart from other similar services of accessing web content through SMS and short codes, Shorthand SMS stands apart as there is no need to undergo the complex process of storing and using the “short codes”, “keywords” and “phone numbers” to get connected. Shorthand SMS browser lets you easily select your desired content from the well listed menu in a simple way.

Cost To The User
The users can enjoy the Shorthand browser platform absolutely free of cost. Users do not have to use their data plan while accessing through the SMS Apps. Updates to online contents via SMS Apps are sent as text messages and hence only normal SMS charges apply. However downloading the Shorthand browser for the first time needs a data plan enabled.

Shorthand Mobile Compatibility
The compatibility of this platform is not at all restricted to high-end smart phones but also works on mid-tier and low-end handsets. The browser supports different platforms including J2ME, Windows Mobile and Pocket PC phones. Below is the list of phones which is currently Shorthand compatible.

Samsung S3310
Samsung S3500
Samsung SGH-L700
Nokia N70
Nokia N82
Nokia 7210 Supernova
Nokia 2700 Classic
Nokia 5130 Express Music
Sony Ericsson G502

The Application support in the server side and website maintenance for Shorthand mobile (India) is taken care by QBurst Technologies.

Upcoming Apps
Shorthand Mobile proposes to add around 15 SMS Apps to be listed on its SMS browser platform ranging from a wide area across finance, social networking and search to transportation and news which are on the pipeline.

Target Market
The parent company, Smarttouch mobile Inc., launches the shorthand mobile sms service in the Indian market with a social networking pack, which includes Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and SMS GupShup apps in the first quarter of 2010. The service would be launched through leading telecom operators on a monthly subscription pattern which is yet to finalize on.