4 ms·

MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta Steps Down

31 points by jasonlbaptiste 17y ago

vinhboy 17y ago
Wait, it's not Tom?
phatbyte 17y ago
Does anyone still uses myspace ?
hendzen 17y ago
who wants to be captain of a sinking ship?
- rms 17y ago
  CEO of Myspace would look good on my resume and I suspect it pays well, has a good health care plan, etc.
glhaynes 17y ago
If I were CEO of MySpace I'd embrace the demographic that still regularly uses it. Make it the "bar/pub/club" of the Internet -- Facebook is staid and stately (well, perhaps only compared to MySpace) while you can let loose on MySpace... you can decorate your name, your page, there's loud music and bright things everywhere, it's a party.
- prawn 17y ago
  On a related note, I recently had Dutch trainees working for me and the big social network for them is Hyves.nl. One thing about Hyves that worked well (from what I saw) was the ability to toggle instantly between a styled profile (not quite as idiotic as the average MySpace page, but colourful, etc) and the default template (more along the lines of Facebook).
- staunch 17y ago
  That sounds fine, but what does it really mean they should do? MySpace grew so large because people logged in every day to stay in touch with their friends. Now they login to Facebook. How do they convince people to start coming back to myspace.com? They have to be something. A profile you don't care about, and that none of your friends look at, is not going to cut it. It doesn't matter how exciting and party-like their site appears.
  - zaidf 17y ago
    1. To find the newest bestest bands of tomorrow...today 2. To find the best parties in town tonight 3. To find insider view of upcoming Hollywood flicks and television. All huge industries. Each one of them pretty much forced their way into MySpace. And now it seems like their strategy is to kick them out--not outrightly, but by killing the culture. DO make sure when people post crazy HTML stuff it doesn't include a virus OR hurt the user's proc usage. DON'T try to kill your creative culture by making it another facebook-like UI.
    - staunch 17y ago
      Your circle of friends solve #1 and #2 better than anything else, and they're on Facebook. I'm not aware of #3 being particularly in demand. I think the verdict is in on hideous MySpace profiles: not very many people cared about them at all, and almost no one cared enough to stick around on MySpace for them.
- hristov 17y ago
  And what would that demographic be? Even teenagers don't use myspace any more.
alttab 17y ago
He was CEO of Myspace for less than a year (who could blame him) and a CEO of another company for only 5 months. Sounds like hes not fit for the position.
- aswanson 17y ago
  Or that he's in a volatile industry.
  - staunch 17y ago
    Or he chooses jobs badly.
- sedachv 17y ago
  Nowadays 1-3 years for senior management seems to be about the norm. 5 months is definitely on the low side, though.
- agotterer 17y ago
  This is what happened in his time there... http://siteanalytics.compete.com/myspace.com+facebook.com/ http://siteanalytics.compete.com/myspace.com+facebook.com/
mattmaroon 17y ago
On the one hand, Myspace has done nothing but swirl down the drain during his tenure. On the other hand, his task was monumental, and who knows what bureaucracy from Fox he has to deal with.

vinhboy 17y ago

Wait, it's not Tom?

phatbyte 17y ago

Does anyone still uses myspace ?

hendzen 17y ago

who wants to be captain of a sinking ship?

rms 17y ago
CEO of Myspace would look good on my resume and I suspect it pays well, has a good health care plan, etc.

glhaynes 17y ago

If I were CEO of MySpace I'd embrace the demographic that still regularly uses it. Make it the "bar/pub/club" of the Internet -- Facebook is staid and stately (well, perhaps only compared to MySpace) while you can let loose on MySpace... you can decorate your name, your page, there's loud music and bright things everywhere, it's a party.

prawn 17y ago
On a related note, I recently had Dutch trainees working for me and the big social network for them is Hyves.nl. One thing about Hyves that worked well (from what I saw) was the ability to toggle instantly between a styled profile (not quite as idiotic as the average MySpace page, but colourful, etc) and the default template (more along the lines of Facebook).
staunch 17y ago
That sounds fine, but what does it really mean they should do? MySpace grew so large because people logged in every day to stay in touch with their friends. Now they login to Facebook. How do they convince people to start coming back to myspace.com? They have to be something. A profile you don't care about, and that none of your friends look at, is not going to cut it. It doesn't matter how exciting and party-like their site appears.
- zaidf 17y ago
  1. To find the newest bestest bands of tomorrow...today 2. To find the best parties in town tonight 3. To find insider view of upcoming Hollywood flicks and television. All huge industries. Each one of them pretty much forced their way into MySpace. And now it seems like their strategy is to kick them out--not outrightly, but by killing the culture. DO make sure when people post crazy HTML stuff it doesn't include a virus OR hurt the user's proc usage. DON'T try to kill your creative culture by making it another facebook-like UI.
  - staunch 17y ago
    Your circle of friends solve #1 and #2 better than anything else, and they're on Facebook. I'm not aware of #3 being particularly in demand. I think the verdict is in on hideous MySpace profiles: not very many people cared about them at all, and almost no one cared enough to stick around on MySpace for them.
hristov 17y ago
And what would that demographic be? Even teenagers don't use myspace any more.

alttab 17y ago

He was CEO of Myspace for less than a year (who could blame him) and a CEO of another company for only 5 months. Sounds like hes not fit for the position.

aswanson 17y ago
Or that he's in a volatile industry.
- staunch 17y ago
  Or he chooses jobs badly.
sedachv 17y ago
Nowadays 1-3 years for senior management seems to be about the norm. 5 months is definitely on the low side, though.
agotterer 17y ago
This is what happened in his time there... http://siteanalytics.compete.com/myspace.com+facebook.com/ http://siteanalytics.compete.com/myspace.com+facebook.com/

mattmaroon 17y ago

On the one hand, Myspace has done nothing but swirl down the drain during his tenure. On the other hand, his task was monumental, and who knows what bureaucracy from Fox he has to deal with.