Umair Haque / Bubblegeneration

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Why Yahoo Didn't Build MySpace

Don't know if you saw Bradley Horowitz's pyramid last week, arguing that only a small percentage of consumers become peer producers.

Bradley is a terribly smart guy, but I was going to write a nice long post about why this is exactly, totally wrong; Greg beat me to it - I highly recommend you check out his post.

It's a very nice datapoint about why Yahoo, who's focused heavily on the social, doesn't really understand what "the social" is, or how it creates value - which is why they got, and continue to get, thoroughly pwned by MySpace.

-- umair // 3:24 AM // 4 comments

Comments:

Can you clarify why Bradley is totally wrong? Greg's post was completely confusing, and didn't help at all. Curious to hear your thoughts.

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Ed Simone // 6:26 PM

All this talk about MySpace lately. As someone who was part of the Los Angeles indie music scene that is now credited with making MySpace cool, I can tell you it was all about hooking up. It started at Friendster, but we broke it cause everyone started using it. So off to MySpace.

That girl you saw at the club? You could probably find her on MySpace even if you didn't know her name.. just by going through your friends and their friends. Then you either started flirting, stalked her, saw she was underage, or hated her musical tastes so much you got over it.

Stay away from the Morrissey chicks.

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Jim Gilliam // 1:49 AM

Hey Umair,

Thanks for the props - you're clever too! But be sure to read my most recent post and my comment on Greg's post in which I declare we're actually in "violent agreement." I think Greg (and perhaps you and others) confuse the pyramid for a strategy, when it is really just an observation.

Definitely shame on me for not being clearer - it's evident a lot of folks didn't get past the eye candy that was the pyramid, and I definitely wasn't as clear as I shoulda been. Hey - I'm new to the medium. Fine if you still disagree - I'm quite curious in fact. But want to make sure it's not due to lack of clarity on my part.

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Bradley Horowitz // 8:30 AM

Can Yahoo build a MySpace ? Can one Size fit all? Can one brand effectively co-brand with multiple demographics of users, with varied reasons that make entice them to commune and interact with and around the brand?

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Lalit Sarna // 6:16 AM