MySpace caves and will finally allow Facebook integration

By Molly McHugh November 18, 2010

In the Nth groundbreaking announcement this week, today Facebook and MySpace held a joint event via webcast. The press event announced that MySpace is finally yielding, and will allow its users to login via Facebook. Labeling the integration “Mashup with Facebook,” MySpace users will also have the option of selecting the “Connect with Facebook” icon that will appear on the site.

For years now, Facebook has been steadily widening its lead over MySpace, so today’s announcement seems like it’s been a long time coming. This “Mashup” will share users Facebook likes and interests with MySpace (you’re able to decide what and how much of your Facebook profile is sent to MySpace), so that it will become easier to connect with favorite entertainers and artists. “Like” buttons will also start popping up throughout the site, and these will throw information (videos and music primarily) to be shared on Facebook. All of your Facebook status updates will be displayed on MySpace as well, if you choose to use Facebook connect.

After spending most of its existence defending itself as a worthy alternative to Facebook, this collaboration is more or less MySpace’s admittance of defeat. At the same time, being defeated is better than being run out of business. Since being warned by NewsCorp that the company had mere months to get its act together, MySpace has certainly been pressured to find a solution for its escalating losses. Using Facebook user information can help it better target advertising, a benefit the site can use almost immediately.

So it looks like the student becomes the teacher, as Facebook officially takes rank over MySpace. Maybe the mashup will give MySpace the boost it needs to stay afloat – or maybe even infuse some new life in the fading site. MySpace isn’t the first site to take advantage of Facebook’s social graph, and as the site continues to mold itself into a niche destination focused on entertainment, this integration could give it stronger legs to stand on.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…

Computing

Twitter advertising revenue swiftly challenging MySpace

Market research firm eMarketer believes that Twitter could take in $150 million in advertising this year – more than three times the advertising revenue it saw last year. The analysts believe that most of this money will come from US companies and that next year, Twitter could be raking in as much as $250 million in advertising.

Surprisingly, MySpace was able to just barely outdo Twitter’s advertising income with $184 million, but the flailing company’s revenue has been consistently slipping, and it won’t be able to hold any lead for long. It’s projected to only pull in $156 million next year, versus $288 million this year.

Computing

MySpace China reportedly slashes staff and CEO

It's no secret that former social networking powerhouse has seen better days, and that the operation is under pressure from parent News Corp to turn its finances around or face drastic measures. Any new job cuts at MySpace are expected to land first in the company's international operations, and today multiple reports indicate MySpace China has said goodbye to its CEO and the majority of its staff, with as few as a dozen people still on board. According to TechWeb (Chinese), a total of 30 employees were laid off, other reports indicate as few as four people may remain with the operation.

MySpace China has never been a major force in the Chinese social networking market, billing itself as more of a destination for digital music enthusiasts than as a social networking service. Unlike many of MySpace's international operations, however, MySpace China is a separately owned and managed company; MySpace's efforts in Japan are a joint venture, rather than an operation wholly-owned by News Corp. Rumors have circulated for the last few weeks that MySpace China has been looking for a buyer.

Computing

Facebook claims 44 percent of online sharing

A trend analysis from AddThis was reported by Mashable this morning, and it reveals that a whopping 44 percent of online sharing happens on Facebook. Last year, the social networking site was the platform for 33 percent of online sharing, and its growth has only made it more dominant. And there is no clear second – following Facebook are over 300 alternative services out there (think Twitter and Digg) that are competing for a piece of the share button pie.

While Facebook is easily controlling this market, the infographic also shows that Google and StumbleUpon have experienced significant growth when it comes to users sharing information via their sites. AddThis points out that despite having only a third of the users Facebook does, Gmail’s sharing volume grew 1.4 times faster than the social network’s. StumbleUpon found itself in a similar situation, with a growth rate of 254 percent sharing over the last year. Inversely, MySpace, Friendster, and Favorites all saw plummeting sharing numbers.