3 ms·

The Smart Execs Leave Before The Fall.

13 points by thepanister 18y ago

sam_in_nyc 18y ago
In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with being second place. Even if Facebook "conquers" MySpace... so what? What's wrong with being ranked, oh, about #8, of all websites?
- herval 18y ago
  I agree - specially if your product is lucrative and #1 is surviving on VC money... (not implying that's the case here - just think that being lucrative is better than 'being the biggest')
- swombat 18y ago
  Well, don't forget that the dynamics of social networks as such that they lose value exponentially if people start to leave. A social network that's not growing fast enough is probably dying. So the long term prospects are not to be number 2, but to be out of the race.
  - Brushfire 18y ago
    Thats fair, but if you ask anyone in the music community, it doesnt look like myspace is going to be out of the race anytime soon. Its their job to make this strength (perhaps the last one they have) work to revive them. Personally, I dont think the issue is leaving users, becuase facebook will deal with that too eventually (or at least hoards of inactive users). Rather, I think the issue here is the inability to reinvent themselves / make big changes becuase of their fun corporate overlords. There are probably some awesome designers and developers that know the massive changes that needs to be made at myspace to make it a winner again, but are being given no incentive (or negative) to go after those changes. The best part about BEING #2, which has served facebook, but which could also serve myspace in the future, is that you can learn on #1's dime. Look at their mistakes/problems, and fix them. Facebook has had notorious issues with their ad targeting system, their developer platform, etc. Myspace has bigger issues to fix first, but if given enough leeway they could fix their own issues and grow again.
- jupiter 18y ago
  The consequence of being #2 on users, uniques or pageviews is not neccessarily being #2 in revenues. I think loosing money is what puts you out of business sooner or later.

13 points by thepanister 18y ago

In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with being second place. Even if Facebook "conquers" MySpace... so what? What's wrong with being ranked, oh, about #8, of all websites?

herval 18y ago
I agree - specially if your product is lucrative and #1 is surviving on VC money... (not implying that's the case here - just think that being lucrative is better than 'being the biggest')
swombat 18y ago
Well, don't forget that the dynamics of social networks as such that they lose value exponentially if people start to leave. A social network that's not growing fast enough is probably dying. So the long term prospects are not to be number 2, but to be out of the race.
- Brushfire 18y ago
  Thats fair, but if you ask anyone in the music community, it doesnt look like myspace is going to be out of the race anytime soon. Its their job to make this strength (perhaps the last one they have) work to revive them. Personally, I dont think the issue is leaving users, becuase facebook will deal with that too eventually (or at least hoards of inactive users). Rather, I think the issue here is the inability to reinvent themselves / make big changes becuase of their fun corporate overlords. There are probably some awesome designers and developers that know the massive changes that needs to be made at myspace to make it a winner again, but are being given no incentive (or negative) to go after those changes. The best part about BEING #2, which has served facebook, but which could also serve myspace in the future, is that you can learn on #1's dime. Look at their mistakes/problems, and fix them. Facebook has had notorious issues with their ad targeting system, their developer platform, etc. Myspace has bigger issues to fix first, but if given enough leeway they could fix their own issues and grow again.
jupiter 18y ago
The consequence of being #2 on users, uniques or pageviews is not neccessarily being #2 in revenues. I think loosing money is what puts you out of business sooner or later.