Despite the fact that he starred in the
Social Network
, one person who won't be celebrating Facebook day is singer
Justin Timberlake, who still owns Myspace alongside Specific
Media following the $35 million purchase in June of last
year.
So what will Timberlake be doing today? Well, in the fall of
last year he told MTV news "I don't have anything on my plate
other than think-tanking a lot of different ideas for MySpace."
And the fruit of those think-tanking sessions thus far? Zero,
zilch, nada. Hardly a Facebook hack-a-thon, is it?
The silence from Myspace since Timberlake and Specific
graciously took it off News Corp's (NASDAQ:
NWSA
) hands has been deafening. There has been no news of new
features, no big press conferences, no nothing. Meanwhile, at the
time of writing, Zuckerberg is making American business history
as his company becomes the biggest IPO in history.
On Thursday,
Richard Saintvilus of TheStreet
wrote a story called "Google could 'Myspace' Facebook", implying
that the word "Myspace" is now synonymous with business failure
or, specifically, social network failure. That's what Myspace is
now, it is the mark that similar companies don't want to make.
It's the anti-target.
It is also telling that, also on Thursday, it was reported
that Myspace had settled charges that it had been improperly
sharing user information with advertisers, and nobody batted an
eyelid. The Federal Trade Commission charged that Myspace was not
honoring its own privacy policy, but nobody cares because, to be
honest, barely anyone is on there anymore.
Whether or not it was a result of Timberlake's think-tank
sessions to provide advertisers with user's "friend ID" which
could then be matched with the profiles containing all of the
pertinent information, we don't know. We do know that, as part of
the settlement, Myspace won't pay a monetary penalty. It must now
implement and maintain a comprehensive privacy program and
provide periodic independent privacy assessments for 20
years.
20 years? Surely the FTC is being incredibly optimistic that
there will be a company to assess at all in 20 years.
So let's all spare a thought for Timberlake and Myspace today.
While the crowds gather and cheer as Zuckerberg and his gang wave
and smile, the Myspace guys are drawing up a privacy plan and
hoping for inspiration pointing towards success. Maybe making
music is the better option, Justin. Then again…
Follow me
@BCallwood
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