Myspace.Com: The Social Networking Hub and Multi-Million Marketing Tool - Essay Example

True enough, anyone can make a personal profile online using the Myspace website. One can gain friends by adding another person's profile into their friends list. In his paper, Kheine (29 April 2004) had voiced out that these social networking sites (SNS) are innate to the human cultural experience. The websites, like Myspace, are popular because they focus on personal relationships and orient on specific social or informational goals. This is how the SNS sites attract participants. They engage people with similar or various interests ranging from making business contacts to dating and leisure activities.

Likewise, SNS sites facilitate narrowly focused information exchange including recommendations, news, editorial and personal narrative, and so on. Each of the current SNS applications appeals to a basic human desire for connection and inclusiveness within a social group or activity. In Figure 1, it can be seen that there are about 247 million people who are members of social networking sites. Almost one third of these members are subscribed to Myspace.com. As of now, it is indubitable to argue that Myspace is by far the most popular social networking web site.

The website is co-founded in 2003 by Tom Anderson, an amateur musician with a film degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and Chris DeWolfe, a marketing expert, MySpace has become the premier social networking Web site since its January 2004 launch. As of May 2006, it has nearly 80 million members, and it continues to grow each day. MySpace receives more daily traffic than popular websites such as the retail outlet Amazon.com, the user-generated encyclopedia Wikipedia and the online auction site eBay.

MySpace also often receives at least 20 times as many visitors as competitors such as Friendster. Among other social networking sites, MySpace offers a greater degree of customization. Users can, in effect, design their personal homepages however they wish, adding different animations, photographs, backgrounds, songs and even videos that can be played on the Web site alongside their personal information. Additionally, all MySpace members are given access to their own web log, onto which they can post their thoughts, opinions, or whatever information they feel like sharing with the online world.

Non-members can also view MySpace profiles, although their access is limited. MySpace's main draw is that any member can "make friends" with other members, building up lists of friends that often total in the hundreds. One member in particular, Tila Tequilla, has found fame and fortune through her MySpace profile. Though she started her page to promote her music, one can easily guess from her page that users are not befriending