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New look and direction for MySpace

MySpace, the NewsCorp-owned social networking site that saw itself overtaken by Facebook, has unveiled a new look and direction as it seeks to reinvent itself as an entertainment platform powered by social.

The new look, which will be rolled out in Australia in mid-November, sees the site positioned as a competitor to entertainment sites, rather than to Facebook. It will see MySpace’s Australian sales team ramp up their efforts to sell ads on the site based on premium niches rather than a CPM model.MySpace splashMySpace Australia’s MD Nick Love told Mumbrella: “When we were going through the process of redesigning MySpace we did a lot of research into what we were good at and what we were not good at.”

He admitted: “For the most part we did not know what we stood for. We see one of our strengths as an ability to service emerging cultural trends. Our goal is to be the leading entertainment destination, socially powered.”

The site’s key areas will be music, movies, games, celebrity and television.

Users will be offered choices in how their home pages are presented, while the information they are offered will vary depending on their own interests and behaviour as well as what is trending. The site will give priority to the tastes of influential users. Love said: “We will be focusing on the curators.”

He said that one of the aims behind the redesign was to simplify the site.

He said: “We’ve been criticised for a poor user experience in the past. Part of the vision is to reorganise it and simplify it.”

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