MySpace Revenue Up, New Ads Up Even More

Thursday, November 6th, 2008 by Jordan McCollum

MySpace Revenue Up, New Ads Up Even More

Wow, something’s up here—this is the second time this week we’ve written about MySpace. The granddaddy of all social networks is having quite the week for news, with the announcement of their video fingerprinting ad partnership Monday, their Q3 announcement, rumors about the income from their new ad platform and rumors about naming a CEO for their new music division. Whew!

Yesterday, MySpace’s parent (grandparent?) company, News Corp, discussed its Q3 earnings. While many of the conglomerate’s divisions did poorly, MySpace’s unit still posted a 17% increase in revenue YOY. However, they are feeling the hit of the failing economy, as Rupert Murdoch said:

“We are doing slightly better than the marketplace, but it’s clear from everybody else that there’s a lot of softening in the display advertising marketplace, and we are clearly beginning to feel some of that.”

However, their new ad platform, MySpace MyAds, is doing booming business. Michael Arrington’s sources estimate that the three-week-old platform is raking in on average $140,000 to $180,000 a day—making it a $50M a year business in less than a month. These levels may be sustainable long term, too.

Our sources say that a large number of ad arbitragers are trying out the system, as well as many of the millions of music artists that have MySpace pages. Those artist ads are doubly profitable for MySpace, since the ads link back to MySpace web pages, driving up page views and additional advertising impressions.

Outsiders are estimating that MySpace revenues for the fiscal year ending June 2009 will reach $1 billion. It’s clear that MyAds will be a significant driver of revenue growth. 2008 revenue was estimated to $750 million.

Finally, MySpace Music, which launched in September, is shopping for a CEO. AllThingD’s Peter Kafka notes, however, that the job doesn’t carry as much prestige as the title normally would, since it’s only a divisional CEO position. He says Courtney Holt, head of Viacom & MTV’s digital music, will be announced as the MySpace Music CEO tonight or tomorrow.

In the tech blogosphere, MySpace is often treat as if it’s “so yesterday”—now even its biggest challenger has lost its media darling status. But MySpace continues to innovate for users and advertisers—which probably has a lot to do with why they’re still the most popular social network online.

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16 comments on “MySpace Revenue Up, New Ads Up Even More”

Zurpit Says:

November 6th, 2008 at 6:40 pm

Wow that is really impressive that MySpace ads are doing so good. Even they can keep up those number long terms it will be really great for them
Saad Kamal Says:

November 6th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

Good for Myspace! Facebook should take some lesson from this

Saad Kamal’s last blog post..Jerry Yang Making A Fool of Himself
brandon alan scofield Says:

November 6th, 2008 at 8:50 pm

as world’s number one social media , myspace deserve that,$180,000 a day ?, hmmm so much money

brandon alan scofield’s last blog post..First post
Busby SEO Says:

November 6th, 2008 at 10:23 pm

average $140,000 to $180,000 a day, wow it’s a BIG money. And I’m agree with Saad Kamal; Facebook should take some lesson from this.

Busby SEO’s last blog post..By: Koped – Jurus Andalan Blogger Pemula » Ardi’s Personal Weblog
Ami Ohayon Says:

November 7th, 2008 at 3:10 am

That YOY growth is remarkable, particularly when couple with todays news about the drop in consumer sales for October.

For MySpace to have those kind of numbers in the current climate is, frankly, very surprising.
savings Says:

November 7th, 2008 at 4:33 am

Some months ago, I would have said, all that facebook and myspace photo sharing has got the company zero dollars in revenue…this is what the great venture capitalists were investing in? wow, what a bunch of lemmings!

But to see the huge jump in revenue/profit still puts myspace in the top of social networking sites. My face should improve on their ad revenue model.
Nick Stamoulis Says:

November 7th, 2008 at 9:28 am

That is amazing to see those numbers that high just after launch. I think it is still early. People are testing it right now. 6 months down the road if advertisers don’t see profits increasing than many will split and try something else.
iPod Says:

November 7th, 2008 at 9:35 am

It seems like Myspace are creating a sustainable business model. Now it’s time for Facebook to join the party.
John
SEO Tips South Africa Says:

November 7th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

Too little too late? MySpace needs to do loads to catch up to Facebook’s current momentum!
Utah SEO Pro Says:

November 7th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Depending on your product/service it could be a cost effective place to advertise.

Utah SEO Pro’s last blog post..The Future of SEO
Abdulrehman Says:

November 9th, 2008 at 4:52 am

Myspace is making an unexpected comeback!

Abdulrehman’s last blog post..Save Bandwidth by Optimizing your Blog’s Pictures
Goran Web Design Says:

November 10th, 2008 at 2:48 am

It fills my heart with joy to hear about Myspace’s changing fortunes.. I’ve always felt a little bad about their apparent defeat by Facebook… Their new fortunes, combined with Facebook’s recent failings, could bring Myspace back into the limelight
cat Says:

November 10th, 2008 at 3:30 am

Good to Myspace acording to this tandetion soon they’ll be able yo kickk Facebook out of the market
Ultimate Blackhat Says:

November 12th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

While the new and fast growing FB is struggling to generate any money the old and rusty MySpace is live and kicking.
PS3 Says:

November 14th, 2008 at 7:07 pm

Where does Bebo figure in the social media world, compared to FB and MySpace?
21st Century Dial-Tone « The Political Voice Says:

December 11th, 2008 at 12:05 am

[...] revenue to be almost $350 million in 2008. However, MySpace is predicted to outdue them and net close to $750 [...]

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