Mike Abasov

As mentioned on Mashable, the new MySpace is trying to get out of the battle with Facebook and move towards entertainment, the area where the rival is minimally established. But here’s a problem. The new niche means new competitors like established Last.fm or brand new Ping.

So the question is, “Does MySpace have what it takes to win this market?” I think it does. At least, it has 3 particular advantages:

1. It is about free content. Not like monetized Ping. And it’s a lot about indie art too. If the company is able to hold on to indie musicians and filmmakers, it might win. But if it goes after big entertainment brands looking for big money, it will loose. After all, Apple has much stronger connections with recording labels.

2. It seams to have learned the lessons. The rebranding looks fresh, and I can see some ideas taken from many other successful projects (like badges from Foursquare). The fact that MySpace admits that it has lost to Facebook and adjusts its strategy deserves respect too.

3. It is pre-established. Unlike many newcomers to the market, MySpace has audience and has reputation. It has fans. The goal now is not to loose them but leverage their influence and grow.

Well, I can just wish good luck to the new MySpace (and r.i.p., the new Digg).

What do you think? Yay or nay to this rebranding?

Now we trust social web more than we trust TV, radio, newspapers (oh god, I hate newspapers!), print, and any type of hard sales. We’re amazed with all this experiences we get from our computers, tablets and phones in the same way people used to be in love with their TV sets.

But this time will pass, and, although it won’t happen very soon, it will happen for sure. “SEO experts” will completely screw up blogging; mass followers will kill relationships on Twitter and Facebook; spammers will get to your comfy geo location services and shit all over Foursquare.

So do something now! Go the right way, talk, discuss, be open, build relationships and brand equity, do all that awesome stuff, if you haven’t started doing it yet! Because, when this social train crashes, it will be too late to start earning consumers’ trust. But if you have it, no one will take it from you.