2007 Article: Will MySpace Ever Lose Its Monopoly?

It’s easy to think the world as it exists now is the world as it will always look. That’s always eventually proven wrong.

With that in mind here’s Victor Keegan, writing for The Guardian in 2007 (via Hackernews):

It is common knowledge that a fax machine is worthless until others have one too. That is what is happening in social networking except that, unlike a fax machine, it can’t be instantly swapped for another. It is easy to change search engines, even if it is Google. But if you change social networks you not only have to move all your videos, audios, messages, photos elsewhere but you also lose your network of friends unless they migrate with you. MySpace won’t make that easy. Its massive user base will help maintain its dominance, according to co-founder Chris DeWolfe. “In social networking, there is a huge advantage to have scale. You can find almost anyone on MySpace and the more time that has been invested in the site, the more locked in people are.”

Not mentioned once in the article: Facebook.

Every dominate tech company you can think of will be replaced eventually, and you’ve almost certainly never heard of the company that will do it.