[Sigia-l] Your take on MySpace

[Debi Jones]

Yes, my recent work on an application that has been referred to as
MySpace for Mobile called Rabble, http://www.rabble.com  led to many
conversations between Pat and myself about the demographic, about
their behaviors and the corollaries of a decade ago, Geocities, etc.

User behavior in the Rabble community mirrors much of what one
observes on MySpace.  A normal adolescent preoccupation with one's
appearance, identity and even sexual organs leads to all the testing
of social interaction and norms that you can observe in physical world
teen groups.  The willingness of the younger demographic to explore
and experiment while doing the thing that comes natural, seeking
attention, makes them ideal for overcoming most obstacles of
technology, design or even good taste.  Those considerations come
later once one has formed a sense of their identity, values and
opinions.

>From the most generous estimates maybe half of those 56 million
profiles on MySpace are in the youth demo.  The rest are musicians,
soft porn providers and even software or service providers all who
have an interest in connecting with this youth audience.  One musican
when asked about MySpace stated, "...It's like being at a 24/7 music
conference."

This same demographic, 13-24 year olds, represents the greatest uptake
for mobile content and services especially those related to
personalization and communication.  This includes ringtones, SMS and
IM, wallpapers, music, and camerphone use.  There are even greater
usability challenges in the use of mobile devices for community
applications, but the drive for communication and community is
stronger.

Goals change when looking at older demos, and so, behavior also changes.

...Debi
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On 2/23/06, Patrick Neeman <pat at nexisinteractive.com> wrote:
> Me and Debi have had long conversations about MySpace (and I have the
> cell phone bills to prove it ;)). I also have a unique perspective
> because my significant other did some work on MySpace early on, so I
> could watch some of what was going on from an anecdotal perspective.
>
> (Or, many of the conversations were "Did you hear what MySpace is
> doing today?" over dinner...)
>
> It's no mistake that they have at 13-24 audience. The founders of the
> site were heavily involved in the local music scene in Los Angeles,
> and brought a lot of those bands on to the site early on. It also
> didn't hurt that the initial group included import models to attract
> a male audience not interested in conversation. This gives music fans
> direct access to their favorite bands in a way that's been missing
> from the web since the implosion of mp3.com, and since a lot of these
> bands appealed to a younger audience, of course the fans are going to
> join and become friends with their favorite band.
>
> Just the fact alone there is this direct access is something that is
> unparalleled among the networking sites. As a music fan myself, this
> is something that might appeal to me, and I've 2 to 3 times the age
> of a lot of the MySpace users. That explains why older groups are
> also congregating on MySpace.
>
> MySpace actually tried some earlier promotions with larger bands
> (R.E.M. was one of their early band experiments). And for many of us
> (well, those of us that listen to music), our music tastes are formed
> during this period, because we are experimenting with who we are and
> defining our identity.
>
> Debi put it right -- it's like a teenager's bedroom: it'll be messy,
> it'll change, it'll have posters on the way, but it will also define
> their identity. And for many teenagers, this is this first foray into
> the web, just like how many people our age experimented with
> GeoCities, the teens are making MySpace their own. And in a few
> years, there will be a new site for
>
> MySpace isn't totally about usability just like eBay isn't totally
> about usability: it's all about the community. But with all the warts
> that MySpace has (it's buggy, it's on technology that doesn't scale
> at all [Cold Fusion[, searching on it is painful and probably
> increases their page views 25 percent alone), if gives a great deal
> of control over to the user, and has tools that create a sense of
> community that is not unlike environments very similar to them (high
> school): girls get to talk with each other, and the guys cruise the
> girls. And it's over a channel that doesn't have toll charges -- a
> virtual community.
>
> P@
>
> Patrick Neeman
> pat at nexisinteractive.com
>
> Signs Evil Forces Are Out To Get You:
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