<i>The web doesn’t hold much attraction for Rupert Murdoch who is now enamored with e-readers and tablets.<p>Tablets, according to those in the know, are being viewed as saviors for News Corp.’s core business: news and information. He thinks that since devices are not that useful without his content; he eventually wins because he will get people to win. “Content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things electronic!” he recently said.</i><p>I think he's missing the point here.<p>a) Newscorp has flourished as a business because up until recently media has been an industry with a high barrier to entry. To paraphrase Warren Buffett, if you own the only newspaper in town it's a bit like owning a local monopoly. The same applies for television channels, etc. which have high upfront costs.<p>b) The problem facing Newscorp now is that the internet has lowered the barrier to entry dramatically, so that its size and financial clout is no longer a major advantage. For instance, would you rather read an article in a Newscorp paper or one of PGs essays? In the past it'd be hard for PG to get his essays out there, now it's much easier. This means a much higher level of competition, and competition destroys margins.<p>c) e-Readers/Tablets don't make the barrier to entry much higher. (You can publish stuff on the Kindle for free, for instance: <a href="https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin" rel="nofollow">https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin</a>). Hence it's hard to see how he can compete in the tablet/e-Reader space any better than he could compete online.
I don't have quick access to user numbers, but Google search trends is interesting (especially when you consider the readwriteweb example today of people typing 'facebook login' into google).<p>Here's the comparison of Facebook, Myspace, and Orkut - <a href="http://www.google.com/trends?q=facebook%2C+myspace%2C+orkut&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=1" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/trends?q=facebook%2C+myspace%2C+orkut&...</a><p>Nothing surprising, except that there are some areas (USA? Tijuana??) where Myspace still out searches Facebook.
It's hard for me to understand why people still use MySpace. I've never had an account there, but from all the user profile pages (not sure if that's what they're called) I've visited, none have been easy on the eye. Facebook seems to be the much better option to me. The Facebook fan pages can be used by most bands to build their brand and market themselves (I've only ever seen Bands using MySpace - nobody I know uses it) - maybe they should create some way for people to migrate their MySpace accounts to Facebook - that'll probably speed up MySpace's demise.
I think Myspace still has the band/musician space, largely because what Myspace allows and Facebook doesn't (restyling the page, embedded music player) are pretty necessary to artists asserting their brand identity. Which is really the main reason for them to have a presence.
MySpace Music is hopeless: the interface, the way content is presented, the way search results are inaccurate and incomplete. The search field isn't even selected by default.<p>If I were Murdoch I would be focusing on an awesome API for anyone to access any and all of News Corp's material. A content warehouse, by which large users can be charged. Uncooperating with Google is one thing, but it should be balanced with this one.<p>Otherwise, News could run a public talent search for hackers, like The Apprentice or Rockstar INXS, to find CEOs.