14 DAY TRIAL // In a move that wouldn't be completely shocking today as it would have been even a few months back, Facebook and MySpace are apparently in talks for some sort of content partnership. According to The Telegraph, this has been confirmed by high-ranking officials at both companies though the nature of the deal isn't all that clear at the moment. While at first it may seem very strange that the two largest social networks in the world would be talking about working together, MySpace has pretty much accepted defeat in the social networking wars and is now refocusing on becoming a media and entertainment hub.
“Facebook is focusing on building the best technology which helps people share content, while at MySpace they are focusing on more [of] a content-led strategy. We would like to have their content, as we already do with many other sites, shared across our network because it is good for our users,” Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, told The Telegraph. “We are open to working with MySpace and are in talks with them at the moment.”
The deal centers around sharing content from MySpace, music or videos, on Facebook possibly using Facebook Connect which has become the standard way of integrating Facebook functionality. Nothing has been agreed upon yet but Facebook Connect would be the ideal tool for the job. The really interesting part is that it could potentially allow users to log into MySpace using their Facebook account.
“We are in talks with Facebook, and other sites, about how we could partner with them. Partnerships are going to be a big part of our strategy moving forward as a lot of value can be derived from them,” MySpace CEO Owen van Natta, who used to work for Facebook, added.
The deal itself does make sense for both MySpace and Facebook but it still makes pretty clear that MySpace has given up on social networking and could prove risky for the once largest social network in the US. As MySpace shifts more towards content it's going to need as much distribution as possible and distribution channels don't get any bigger than the 300-million- Facebook users.
Facebook, on the other hand, wants to become the best place to share content and MySpace's vast catalogue of music and now music videos would be a great addition. MySpace has also recently acquired iLike, the biggest music service on Facebook. Still, MySpace can't really afford to lose users any faster than it is already and a deal like this could accelerate the pace at which users are switching to Facebook and the content part of the business isn't mature enough to make up for it.