MySpace My Space My Spaces - By Russ L.

Entrepreneurship Essay 2
Russell L

DeWolfe and Anderson capitalized on a great idea when they created MySpace. The most important factor in the success of MySpace was the perfect timing of its launch. Just as the idea of social networking was beginning to take off, DeWolfe and Anderson created a site that would capitalize on this new trend in a new way, with greater potential than its competitors. At the time, the social networking market was just developing, with sites such as Friendster, Tribe and Facebook. Although these sites were fairly successful, the creators of MySpace realized that there was an immense opportunity for a more broad social networking site, as the existing ones were all niche sites. Basically, instead of just applying to college students or online daters, MySpace would appeal to everyone and have many more options available. This was a breakthrough idea, and inherently had vast potential and a unique aim.
According to the article, DeWolfe found that sociological trends are as important to monitor as technological trends. This is how the idea was formulated. The new technology of the Internet opened many new opportunities for entrepreneurs, but the successful opportunist found the sociological needs that were unmet within the new trends. MySpace took the already developing trend of social networking and expanded it in several unique ways. MySpace expanded the target audience, opening the doors to anyone who wanted to have their own online profile. Just as importantly, MySpace greatly expanded the content that was associated with the social networking trend. Instead of just a profile, users would express themselves, share music, photos, art and play games. This brought all the functions of the other sites together and added even more, in one convenient social networking site.
The original recognition for the MySpace opportunity was made when DeWolfe and Anderson received a constant stream of requests through e-mail to join the social networking sites. These invitations led them to investigate the new trend for business opportunities. After analyzing the sites, the two decided that the current social networking sites were too niche-based and didn't have much potential to become huge. So, they formed the idea to create MySpace.
The creators of MySpace used the same e-mail invitations that had alerted them to the social networking trend, but with a new twist, to propel the company to new heights. Instead of just getting regular people to invite their friends to MySpace, the creators got bands to create their own pages, which was hugely innovative, and an important step in the success of the site. Once bands created their own pages, they would invite fans, stream music and express themselves, bringing them closer to their fans and providing them with free publicity. This, in turn, attracted many more users to MySpace, especially due to the e-mail invites that people would receive from bands. As this example shows, the DeWolfe and Anderson created a successful site by having a good sense of what the people want, and figuring out how to provide it to them.