01 July 2011

The Social Network Wars - Google Strikes Back?

'MySpace' was the original cool social network before the advent of the 'facebook' age. News Corp had bought MySpace for $ 580 million back in 2005. Yesterday, MySpace was sold for a paltry $ 35 million! Read the report here

On 28th June 2011, Google unveiled it's secret project called Google +. It is yet another social network initiative from the Google stable. Prior to this the three failed attempts were Orkut, Wave and Buzz respectively.

Whether Google + would 'kill' facebook or not, only time would tell. Here's a fantastic blogpost which says why facebook should fear Google +. 

On trying Google +, I liked it's much better privacy control options. The concept of circles is fair and fast. Circles are the subgroups of my 'Friends' (Friends being facebook jargon here) which I make. 

What's wonderful is that nobody knows in which circle you have added them! You decide what to share with whom. For example if you want to share your honeymoon pictures with just your family, you choose that and only your family can see that, rest others wont.

But there is one thing that can potentially kill another company. In this linked post you can read that how Skype can potentially lose out. Google is offering free video chat with 10 people simultaneously, FREE OF COST! Skype too offers free video chat but it's revenues are based on the paid services

I'm not a software or web developer, but these recent developments in the span of few days and the current information have got me thinking:
  1. MySpace was the undisputed champion and was running high on valuation till facebook showed up and slayed it!
  2. Google launches it's Google  Plus initiative.
  3. MySpace was sold for a fraction of it's acquisition cost by News Corp.
  4. Should Microsoft, owner of Skype, be worried? Did the 'Googlers' laughed their a$$e$ when Microsoft paid $ 8.5 billion for Skype? Will Skype's fate be similar to MySpace? 
Do we see a change in the fortunes of the companies mentioned here? Let's wait and watch! 

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