23/11/2009

Social networking granddad MySpace must regain its 'cool' factor in order to remain relevant, an industry expert said.

MySpace must either find a way to be relevant again or change direction, said Neil Stapley, founder of content networking site Dadooda.com.

He added: 'Although MySpace has plenty of equity in its brand, all the talk is about Facebook and Twitter. MySpace needs to get itself back on the same agenda or to reassess its strategy. Social networkers are still, generally, younger, mobile and internet savvy.'

Mr Stapley remarked that since the industry is quite young there has not been sufficient time for a brand to develop real customer loyalty and that users still fluidly move between whichever site is 'cool'.

'Currently Twitter is cool, as is Facebook, just about. MySpace seems to have lost that cache,' he said.

MySpace recently acquired social music provider imeem for $1 million (£601,073).

At its height, the social networking site had over 100 million users and was the largest of its kind.

However, it was overtaken by Facebook in 2008, which now has in excess of 200 million users worldwide.