Introduction
Facebook and Myspace are some of the world’s most popular social media platforms. Even though the sites have specific differences, they also enjoy numerous similarities. Nevertheless, the paper will primarily focus on the differences between the two online avenues. A close review of the two social media giants reveals differences in founding history, early global impact, employee numbers, user demographics and numbers, website features, languages, e-mail services, and role in music, with Facebook edging Myspace in terms of user preferences in the contemporary world.
Founding History and Early Global Impact
Myspace refers to a social media network launched in the United States in August 2003 by Tom Anderson, Chris DeWolfe, and John Hart. Myspace became the first online platform to attain a global audience, revered as the pace-setter in the area. Thus, the platform significantly revolutionized music, pop culture, and technology. Myspace played a significant role in the emergence of YouTube and other presently renowned networking avenues. The site was undisputedly the world’s largest social media site from 2005 to 2009 (Hyunjoo et al. 1) and outdid Google and Yahoo as the US’ most frequented websites in June 2006. However, Facebook surpassed the company in online traffic from May 2009. The number of monthly visitors dropped to a paltry seven million at the close of 2009.
Apart from being a social networking service, Facebook is also a publisher, unlike Myspace. Facebook refers to an American social networking service presently owned by Meta Platforms. The principal founder of the company was Mark Zuckerberg. Other notable contributors in the founding process were Mark’s former Harvard college-mates and roommates, such as Chris Hughes, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Andrew McCollum (Robards 386). Membership to the platform initially comprised Harvard students and eventually expanded to other North American higher learning institutions for anyone above 13 years of age. Robards further notes that Facebook attained position seven in global internet usage, enjoyed over 2.7 billion monthly users in 2020, and received applause for being the most downloaded mobile application throughout the 2010s (388).
Employees and Changing Ownership
In 2017, Myspace had about 150 employees on its payroll (Hyunjoo et al. 1). The major executives were Justin Timberlake, COO Chris Vanderhook, and CEO Tim Vanderhook. The company’s ownership changed to Justin Timberlake and Specific Media Group in June 2011 after the joint acquisition. Other subsequent owners became Time Inc., Meredith Corporation, and Viant Technology LLC. Facebook remains under the founders’ ownership, unlike Myspace, which often changes ownership. The social media platform (Facebook) started with 150 workers in 2006, but at the close of 2021, the company had approximately 72,000 full-time employees (Hyunjoo et al. 1). The prominent executives of the site include founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, CFO David Wehner, and COO Sheryl Sandberg. According to Robards, Myspace had approximately 150 million users, while Facebook boasted about 400 million subscribers as of February 2010 (392).
User Demographics
In their earlier years, surveys indicate that Myspace was more prevalent amongst high school learners, whereas Facebook was rife among college students. The American company Nielsen Claritas recently concluded a study that suggested that the income group of Facebook users was higher compared to Myspace users (Robards 391). The study further revealed that Facebook subscribers tend to use other professional platforms like LinkedIn, unlike their Myspace counterparts.
Distinct Features
The main features availed to Facebook users are the wall, photos, status, pokes, gifts, and messaging. A user’s wall permits friends to share and post messages therein as ‘photos’ enable subscribers to upload and share their albums with family and friends. Users can update their family and friends concerning their whereabouts via their status updates, even as pokes allow users to poke their friends virtually (Robards 392). Users can send virtual gifts like cakes and flowers to their loved ones, while the messaging feature enables the relay of private chats in the inbox. Facebook users can also tag other users in photos and allow uploading and sharing of games, videos, and advertisements. The company introduced the Facebook ‘lite’ version for subscribers with slow internet connectivity.
Myspace also boasts some uniques features like the ability to permit users to build and modify their user profiles as per preferred themes, which is an absent feature in Facebook. The site also has Who I’d Like to Meet and About Me sections and emoticons that indicate various moods. Myspace users can alter their profile texts to custom formats with multiple colors and texts. The user can also modify profile pictures into 100 dollar bills, line drawings, or cartoons (Robards 394). Myspace uses bulletins posts on users’ pages that are visible to family and friends. Users can share joint boards via the Group feature, while the MySpaceIM acts as an instant messaging platform. Myspace News and Mobile permit access to users’ news and mobile, respectively, while MyspaceTV denotes a video-sharing platform. Other notable sections in Myspace are the Karaoke and classified sections.
Role in the Music Industry
Myspace is distinct from Facebook in that it has the Music section that enables musicians to upload their content on their pages for millions across the world to sample and enjoy daily. The social media platform also has a content management and digital rights service known as the SNOCP, through which artists can sell their music. Indeed, the successes of Myspace music birthed Myspace Records to discover and support hidden musical talent. The company continues to launch new features to its music page, including the archive and playlist sections (Hyunjoo et al. 1). Myspace Transmissions, established in 2007, permits live studio recordings by musicians. Even though Facebook allows the uploading of videos and music on its page, its features are less elaborate and poorly defined than Myspace.
E-mail Services and Languages
Presently, Facebook does not have e-mail services. On the other hand, Myspace came up with e-mail services in 2009 where users could get e-mail addresses with unlimited storage capacities. The Myspace e-mail service had more than 15 million users in 2010 (a year later) (Robards 389). Facebook went down in history as the pioneer company to permit external developers to create Facebook applications. Myspace later also allowed the same, but Facebook’s number of third-party apps remains far higher than Myspace. Facebook users enjoy safeguards against spam messages, unlike Myspace users that constantly contend with spam. Also, while Facebook supports and is available in over 110 languages, Myspace is only available in 15 languages (Robards 394). Myspace lacks the individual messaging features that Facebook subscribers enjoy daily.
Conclusion
Facebook and Myspace have several differences running back from the circumstances of their founding and the user demographics. Myspace seems to be miles ahead of Facebook in the music scene, while Facebook enjoys more robust user features like walls, posts, tags, pokes, inboxing services, and better protection from spam attacks. Moreover, while Myspace has unique e-mail services, Facebook lacks the feature. However, Facebook currently exceeds Myspace’s employee and user numbers globally. Facebook enjoys a more global appeal than Myspace owing to its numerous language support.
Works Cited
Hyunjoo Lee, et al. “What Makes a Difference Between Facebook, Myspace, and YouTube? Similarity and Dissimilarity between Online Social Networking Communities.” Conference Papers — International Communication Association, 2010 Annual Meeting 2010, p. 1. EBSCOhost. Web.
Robards, Brady. “Leaving Myspace, Joining Facebook: ‘Growing up on Social Network Sites.” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, vol. 26, no. 3, 2012, pp. 385–98. EBSCOhost.