So Will MySpace Be a Good Deal in the Long Run?

I have a unique advantage in market research that the great -- and I mean that sincerely -- Rupert Murdoch doesn't have: 5 kids and 3 step children (but most of them are all grown). My kids range in age from 8 to 20 and they continuously keep me abreast of what is going on in youth culture and the very fickled youth market. There has been much discussion in my home about the $500 million plus that Fox paid for MySpace.com. Just recently it has been described as "under priced" in light of the huge amount of traffic it has received and the thousands of new subscribers it receives every day. In fact, some are saying it was probably worth $2 Billion. Hmm, I have my doubts.

In my house my smaller kids, who are not nearly as economically powerful as my teens, are now wandering on to MySpace. I'm watching them closely as they add their content and I'm looking at the dismay on the faces of my teens who are saying that this might be the kiss of death. When you are a kid, everyone wants to do what the big brother or sister does, no one wants to do what the little sibling does. MySpace is beginning to suffer from that very problem.

Second, there is nothing that changes quicker than the tastes of our teens. Even without bothersome siblings, teens tastes are always going to change. Murdoch buying MySpace for all those kids, may have been the equivalent of buying a pet rock for your kid in the 1970s -- it was so hot at the time.

How will MySpace remain relevant? By developing MySpaces for different age groups. They need one for younger kids and they should have high school and college students qualify for their participation. It needs to raise user feedback to new levels and increase the ability of users to tell MySpace what it wants. Finally, in that classic Rupert Murdch fashion, MySpace needs to move swiftly. In the hands of anyone else, I would worry about the future of MySpace. My gut tells me that Murdoch will figure out how to keep it a huge success.