ryan l.

It's interesting to see questions/arguments like this about a possible MySpace downturn after reaching a ridiculous "peak" of 80+ million registered users, and then to see article's like this one from Ad Age, discussing social networking sites recently securing major advertising opportunities with companies like Wendy's and Toyota. 

So, what is it? My guess is that, like others believe, the downturn talk is a bit premature. But, with more social networking copycats like Bebo.com popping up, you never know where the finicky teen and young adult markets will choose to go. 

MySpace's instant messaging client launched today, as some probably already know. It looks pretty clean and simple, but leaves a few remaining questions.

Surely MySpace, with its 60 million+ users, have a built-in user base for the client–which is all well and good–but that number in no way rivals that of the current market dominators (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.). Introducing another client futher fragments the instant messaging market and makes me wonder how sustainable the MySpace app. really is. Granted, tons of people will download and use the software, but will they do away with the standbys? Doubtful.

With so many different protocols out there, it seems the best bets these days are on applications like Trillian or GAIM, which enable users to add each of their respective accounts into one buddy list - so you're operating with Yahoo! and AIM in the same window. If the MySpace client gets picked up in this way–being added to consolidated apps. like Trillian–then I can see it having a better chance at sticking around.

Steve also brings up a good point, that there is space in the IM window for an ad, but again, a la the Opera browser, how long will people put up with having ads they didn't ask for shoved in their face?