back to article Limping MySpace to offload half of workforce

MySpace employees are bracing themselves for huge job cuts, which are reportedly expected to be announced at the struggling News Corp-owned website later today. According to the Financial Times, MySpace has already laid off some of its staff. A cull of around 500 workers, around half of the company's global workforce, is …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Troll

    title

    This will be facebook one day.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Facebook employees watch out

    This week everybody loves MySpace^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Facebook.

    Next week you could very well be lining up at the dole office. (Zuckerberg wouldn't look out of place there)

  3. Eddie 4

    Dirty Digger does it again

    Well, Rupert has screwed up again. Can't wait til his "pay wall" media empire goes the same way.

    Is this another illustration that traditional businesses don't really "get" the internet? Is Friends Reunited is another case in point, or is it that these "social" networking sites have a limited life span, good for a few years until we get bored and move onto the next thing? If so, Suckerberg had better sell soon.....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Suckerberg had better sell soon....."

      He may have all the money in the world, but there's one thing he can't buy...

      a Dinosaur.

  4. Jess

    With Facebook deleting accounts spuriously...

    ... why don't they make some mileage from it?

  5. Adam Trickett
    Linux

    Does anyone care?

    Does anyone care if MySpace dies?

    Isn't MySpace just the latest in a long line of annoying but ultimately irrelevant web companies?

    With any luck MySpace and Facebook will go the same way as AOL, Yahoo! and the Dodo...

    1. Manu T

      eventually they all will

      ... so better to cash in (or use it) while it lasts.

  6. magnetik

    No surprise

    People say Facebook is just a trend and they'll end up just like MySpace in a few years but I don't think so. MySpace was horrible, from the pathetic skinning that made pages awful to look at, to the ridiculous user experience where you'd have to register a separate artist account just to upload an mp3. It was never much of a joy to use IMHO.

    Facebook on the other hand, for all its faults (notably privacy, though many don't care enough about that), has gotten a lot of things right. Being able to add applications, a clean interface which has constantly evolved as FB grows, decent messaging and so on all make for a far better user experience. I think they'll be around for a while.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Must be just me...

      but I *still* find the interface confusing, especially since they've updated it!

      I think they've tried to cram too much onto one page or got to start again with the HCI (the text size is minute!!) in a lot of cases...

      1. breakfast Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Not just you

        I still find the interface confusing, but then I have set my default language to "English ( pirate )" and that does have a somewhat baffling lexicon on occasion.

  7. envmod

    ruined it

    all the recent upgrades and changes to myspace have totally ruined it. they need to dispatch with all the web 2.0 nonsense, flashy graphics, affiliations with edgy teen shows on C4 etc and get back to brass tacks. myspace is and always was, best as a music (or other media - photography, film etc) exposure tool - especially for unsigned artists. that's all it needs to be - a way to share and comment on people's work. i do have a myspace page stil, but have long since moved over to soundcloud as a means to share stuff. myspace has tried much too hard to be facebook - and i hate facebook. they need to give up their dreamsof being down with the kids and concentrate on their strengths.

  8. sabroni Silver badge

    Q. How many social networks do you need?

    A. the one with all your mates on.

    People join Facebook because that's where their friends are. Multiple exclusive phone networks were rubbish until they changed to be one big interconnected network. My guess is that the next big thing in social networking will be a munging service that doesn't care whether you're on facebook, myspace, bebo or whatever. Until then there's only room for one big player in this market....

  9. EddieD

    Plus ça change and all that

    There was a link from a bbc blog to CNN which carried a thoughtful article about this topic

    http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/01/07/rushkoff.facebook.myspace/index.html?hpt=P1

    predicting the demise of facebook as part of the great tradition that saw off compuserve, AOL, bebo, myspace (and noting that Goldman Sachs are performing the same function for Facebook as they provided for other folk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs#Controversies...)

  10. Bilgepipe
    Unhappy

    Shame

    I preferred it to Facebook.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Half = 500?

    What do 1,000 people do all day at MySpace, ffs?

  12. Stuart 22

    The Murdoch Effect

    Today if you want to join a social network - it has to be Facebook.

    I do remember when MySpace was as big (bigger?) than FB. People had a choice. While some people love Murdoch and his politics - More people don't. One reason why I chose FB and if young people have any ethical aspirations - they may have done the same.

    Oh its nice to think that this could have been part of the reason Facebook grew faster and overtook MySpace to gain the edge. Hence MySpace's implosion. I'm no fan of Zucker but he has not yet done so much damage to politics, sport and much else as uncle Rupert.

  13. IndianaJ
    Thumb Up

    MySpace is to social networking

    as <blink> is to HTML.

    Most of those custom CSS pages were very reminiscent of Geotrocities of the 90s.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Go

      Damn straight!!

      I vaguely remember having to customise a myspace page for a uni assignment by adding my html code into the "about" text box? I may have this wrong - it has been a while, but I remember thinking at the time, why are there no proper facilities for this!?

      As you say, geotrocities allover again =)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "but I remember thinking at the time, why are there no proper facilities for this!?"

        I would have been thinking "why is my uni making me do this?"

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Happy

          LOL don't knock it!

          It was one of the better modules on the course =)

          (seriously!)

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