What is it?
Facebook is very similar to myspace, in that it is a social networking site. Facebook was or
- Originally for college students, started at Harvard
- Later expanded to other colleges, high schools and eventually everyone
- Privately owned company, not owned by News Corp
- Design is more rigorously controlled, users can't customize and make gaudy pages
- Users are more segmented into more private networks, not as public
- Mini-feed is an updating list of what's changed recently
Who is there?
- Teens, college students and young adults
- Narrower audience than myspace, has had a more realistic growth curve
- Potentially higher value audience, users who want a more controlled / designed experience
- The "Target" audience, compared to Myspace's Walmartian audience
Why did it succeed?
- An alternative to myspace
- More exclusive
- Interface a lot more refined than myspace
Why should a museum be there?
- An alternative to myspace, kids are there too
- More selective audience, possibly a better target group
- APIs for hooking into content
See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
MySpace vs Facebook