Table of Contents

Background ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2 Facebook SWOT Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 3 Strengths ................................................................................................................................................... 3 Weaknesses .............................................................................................................................................. 4 Opportunities ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Threats ...................................................................................................................................................... 6 MySpace SWOT Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 6 Strengths ................................................................................................................................................... 6 Weakness .................................................................................................................................................. 8 Opportunities ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Threats ...................................................................................................................................................... 9 Comparison between Facebook and MySpace ........................................................................................... 10 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 11 References .................................................................................................................................................. 12

Background
In the past five years, social networking websites have become increasingly popular among Internet users, especially young teens, as a place where they can meet other people, communicate, and exchange information. Social networking sites typically allow users to create an online profile and establish a personal network to friends, family members, or other users of the site. Any computer with Internet access can be used to join a social networking site. Once a registrant becomes a member, he or she can post personal information, images or other content depending upon the features available at the site. Unless the site offers privacy settings for the disclosure of certain information and the user affirmatively chooses to activate these settings, all the information the user posts on the site may be visible to all other users of the site. The main types of social networking services are those which are interest-based (e.g., hobbies, political groups, or support groups), those that contain directories of some categories (such as former classmates), and those that offer a means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages). While there are many forms of social networking sites, some of the more popular social networking sites involve those that offer the opportunity to connect with or make new friends and include: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Second Life, Bebo, Friendster, Xanga, Buzz, hi5 etc.

Introduction
Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004 and operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add people as friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by workplace, school, or college. Anyone age 13 or older can become a Facebook user. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students. The website currently has more than 400 million active users worldwide. Users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information and other personal information. Communicating with friends and other users can be done through private or public messages or a chat feature. Users can also create and join interest groups and "like pages" (formerly called "fan pages" until April 19, 2010), some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising. Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who can see what parts of their profile. MySpace is a social networking website. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California. MySpace became the most popular social networking site in the United States in June 2006. According to comScore, MySpace was overtaken internationally by its main competitor, Facebook, in April 2008, based on monthly unique visitors. Throughout 2007 and 2008, MySpace redesigned many of the features of its site in both layout and in function. One of the first functions to be redesigned was the user home page, with features such as status updates, applications, and subscriptions being added in order to compete with Facebook. In 2008, the MySpace homepage was redesigned. MySpace Music has been revamped in 2008 and 2009, making it more like an online music store similar to iTunes and Rhapsody. The security of MySpace enables users to choose if the content could be viewed for Friends Only, 18 and older, and everyone.

Facebook SWOT Analysis

Strengths
Clean Layout One of the major strengths of the new look Facebook is the clean layout and the simplifying of the profile page so that when you click on a friends profile you immediately have access to their wall/news feed and can quickly see what they have been up to recently and send them a message directly. Tabbed Browsing The Profile has been divided up into tabs so that all your personal information is in one place and all your applications are on one tab now called boxes. For many people this has been of huge benefit. You now don't have to wait for ages for a profile to load if a friend has installed 200 applications. Overall the platform seems to be running a lot faster than it did before. Although the tabbed feature is only limited to the profile and doesn't yet extend to other areas where it is desperately needed. Integration of Wall and Mini feed Facebook have integrated the wall and the mini feed into one aggregated feed that takes up 70% of the space on the profile page. This major prominence is because Facebook has always been designed to focus on creating and maintaining real relationships and building a sense of community. Quickly being able to know what all the friends are doing plays an important role. It has a number of settings and wall filters so you can see only posts made by yourself, others or you can see the stories that Facebook has selected for you. You can edit your privacy setting to make sure you only display what you really want to the world. Makes Sharing Easier Facebook has made the sharing of videos and photos even easier with one dedicated tab and a host of new features to play around with. This clearly shows that Facebook can see the future and want photo sharing, video chats and video postcards to be on their system and not on other external services like flickr or Skype. New Features Facebook have brought in a lot of new features that help to make Facebook the important part of ones daily life. They have introduced a new blog subscription service where you can join your favorite blog and enjoy all its content without ever having to leave Facebook.

Another nice feature is the ability to create a profile badge that you can place on your website or blog that can show your current status and act like a business card and pull people from outside of Facebook to become your friends. Facebook Notes The Notes feature has increased in prominence, which is great because it gets more people involved in conversations. Anyone who has a blog can import their posts automatically and then tag their friends to come and make a comment. This runs straight into the wall feed and you can make comments directly on your wall/minifeed and keep updated on the topic without having to go back to the post and scroll down to the bottom each time a new person makes a comment. User Specific web page Facebook has variations in its page format targeted to different user group. Beside normal layout, Facebook has lite version (lite.facebook.com) for users with slower and/or intermittent internet connection, mobile version (m.facebook.com) to run on mobile browsers and touch version (touch.facebook.com) for touchscreen mobile phones.

Weaknesses
Harder To Customize A lot of people have felt that Facebook had taken away their ability to express their individuality on their profile page. By forcing everyone's profile to look almost identical. Many users had custom skins for their applications and bumper stickers, pictures and videos so their profile had become almost a work of art. Most of the applications cant be sent on the main page. Instead they are left hidden inside my boxes tab where no one will ever find them. Harder To Judge by First Impressions For business users this is a big disadvantage of the new look Facebook. People want to instantly see in a glance what type of business you are in and what type of networker you are. It now takes longer to decide who you want to accept as a friend. You have to hunt around the tabs for the telltale signs that attract and also repulse. No shortcuts on the Profile page Facebook has removed the shortcuts menu that used to be to the left and below your profile picture. It is now relegated to a position to the right and low down on the Home Page. Making it harder to get to

places will obviously reduce the numbers of people who go there so there could be a potential decline in group activity, especially among new users who might not even know that groups exist. Application Developers Facebook applications developers have also been hit because they can no longer share their applications with friends. Admittedly this might reduce the number of forced application invites that people receive but it takes away the easy ability to share something of value. Designed for Advertising The new profile is a much wider. Wide pages go against the natural tendencies of our foveal vision you can't take it all in in one glance, so physically it makes the design uncomfortable to use, your eyes keep jumping around all the time, made suitable to place advertisements. The Money Spot Facebook has switched the advertising to the right hand side of the page, clearly to take advantage of the natural tendencies of people to focus on this area of the page. Flash Distractions It was also found that the animated flash graphics to be very distracting.

Opportunities
A Great Place to Network Facebook is still a fantastic place to network and share information with your friends. You can make valuable business contacts just as easily as before and you can use facebook to promote yourself, your business, your product or any services you offer .The strategies that you need to adopt are generally the same and you still need to avoid certain practices. Facebook Pages Facebook pages have become somewhat easier to find as they are now appearing in the search box with a little yellow flag on them. With the obvious refocus on advertising those who learn how to use Facebooks social ads will have a great opportunity to get very targeted advertising. Marketing Tools Facebook has a range of powerful marketing tools like polls and surveys that you can use relatively cheaply to test your markets before investing too much time and energy into a project. With all the demographic data they have collected they will be set to compete with Google as they know everything about all their users likes, dislikes and online habits.

Integration with Other Services Facebook recently announced what they call Facebook connect. It allows users to link all their social media activities together. For example it has connected itself with popular sites like twitter, scribd etc. In the future they will all flow seamlessly together and our friends will follow us regardless of what site we are on. This will really unleash the full power of Web and will make the internet a much better place.

Threats
An Open Market This market is still wide open and It wouldnt be surprising that a new contender emerges in the next few years that utilizes Facebook connect and integrates all the social networks into one place or control panel. The new browser by flock and services such as Ping FM and Hellotxt are maybe precursors to this next generation of web 3.0 which will decrease the visit to Facebook original site. Besides, new promising competitors like Google Buzz are appearing which could possess threat to Facebook. No Email Controls Facebook still havent implemented proper filters and controls for messages and emails that it sends. Consequently Facebooks message service can no longer be relied upon as many users who have not kept up to date with their inbox are overwhelmed. Important messages are being lost and users are moving away to use other services such a twitter or Skype.

Privacy Issues The privacy control of the Facebook has been seriously questioned. Although it has continuously improving its privacy settings, experts say that private information can be easily leaked from the Facebook. Though it might not be a big problem for country like Nepal at current scenario, it is a huge threat in developed countries where identity theft is one of the most common crimes.

MySpace SWOT Analysis

Strengths
Moods Moods are small emoticons that are used to depict a mood the user is in. The feature was added in July 2007. This feature of MySpace allows users to share their current mood instantly.

Blurbs, blogs, multimedia Profiles contain two standard "blurbs": "About Me" and "Who I'd Like to Meet" . Profiles also contain an "Interests" section and a "Details" section. In the "Details" section, "Status" and "Zodiac Sign" fields will always display. However, fields in these sections will not be displayed if members do not fill them in. Profiles also contain a blog with standard fields for content, emotion, and media. MySpace also supports uploading images. One of the images can be chosen to be the "default image", the image that will be seen on the profile's main page, search page, and as the image that will appear to the side of the user's name on comments, messages, etc. A photo editor powered by Fotoflexer is available which can not only crop images and adjust contrast but also convert the image to a cartoon or a line drawing made with neon lights. Flash, such as on MySpace's video service can be embedded. Blogging features are also available. These features could be hidden on a profile by using the module customizer or using HTML/CSS codes. Profile customization (HTML) MySpace allows users to customize their user profile pages by entering HTML codes into such areas as "About Me," "I'd Like to Meet," and "Interests." Videos and flash-based content can be included this way. Users also have the option to add music to their profile pages via MySpace Music, a service that allows bands to post songs for use on MySpace. There are several independent web sites offering MySpace layout design utilities which let a user select options and preview what their page will look like with them. MySpace has recently added its own "Profile Customizer" to the site, allowing users to change their profile through MySpace. Music MySpace profiles for musicians in the website's MySpace Music section differ from normal profiles in allowing artists to upload their entire discographies consisting of MP3 songs. The person uploading the song or music must have rights to use the songs. Unsigned musicians can use MySpace to post and sell music using SNOCAP, which has proven popular among MySpace users. MySpace has recently redesigned its music page adding new features for all musicians. These new features include the users' ability to create playlists. The new music features also archive songs from many popular artists, resembling the services of iTunes and Napster.

MySpaceTV (Video) In early 2007, MySpace introduced MySpaceTV, a service similar to the YouTube video sharing website. MySpace has been showing videos as early as 2006, but it has changed its name to MySpaceTV for a while. In 2009, MySpaceTV has reverted back to MySpace Video once again. MySpace Karaoke Launched April 29, 2008, ksolo.myspace.com is a combination of MySpace and kSolo, which allows users to upload their audio recordings onto their profile page. Users' friends are able to rate the performances.

Weakness
Accessibility and Reliability MySpace is set up so that anyone can customize the layout and colors of their profile page with virtually no restrictions, provided that the advertisements are not covered up by CSS or using other means. As MySpace users are usually not skilled web developers, this can cause further problems. Poorly constructed MySpace profiles could potentially freeze up web browsers due to malformed CSS coding, or as a result of users placing many high bandwidth objects such as videos, graphics, and Flash in their profiles (sometimes multiple videos and sound files are automatically played at the same time when a profile loads). Security MySpace, according to the studies, has become a hotspot for spyware. Few years back a selfpropagating cross-site scripting worm infected MySpace. Besides, use of HTML coding can be crafted to form a phising user profile. Recently spams on bulletins have been seen as a result of this phising. The bulletin consists of an advertisement that provides a link to a fake login screen, tricking people into typing in their MySpace e-mail and password.

Opportunities
Media hungry Consumers Compared to other social networking websites, MySpace is able to cater the need of media hungry consumers with media rich features like MySpace music, MySpace Videos and MySpace Karaoke. The demand of such media rich networking website creates ample opportunities for MySpace.

Advertisers Heaven MySpace has huge swarm of consumers who constantly update their taste, likings, and feelings in their profile. This can be utilized as one of the key centers for understanding consumer behavior and make advertisements reach to specific target costumers of MySpace. Language By creating MySpace in different languages, it can become popular locally among international markets. For example MySpace in Nepali language can be more popular in local market than other such social networking websites in other language.

Threats
Growing Social Networking Sites The market of web 2.0 is ever growing. Many players have entered this market and are giving each other a hard competition. Growth in number of strong contenders in this market with specialized features like LinkedIn, Buzz, Facebook create strong threat to MySpace. In fact, this threat alone has been a major cause of decline in popularity of MySpace. Pressure Groups MySpace not being able to maintain enough privacy of its customers has been protested by various pressure groups. More than other social networking website, MySpace has been a popular point for women stalking and sexual harassment. Similarly spywares and worms found in MySpace have raised a serious concern in the general public about the safety of their privacy in MySpace. Piracy Issues MySpace allows free streaming of music in the profile page. This creates the possibility of these songs being illegally copied and distributed. Because of this very reason, MySpace has been allowed to stream only 30 seconds of song of registered artists. Inability to handle the copyright of the music artists properly can create serious legal threats for MySpace. So is the concern with its video feature.

Comparison between Facebook and MySpace

S.no Basis for Facebook comparison 1. User Facebook was launched primarily Demography for college students. But it is popular among all consumer groups. 2. Applications MySpace MySpace was targeted to teenagers. Currently MySpace is popular among teenagers especially those who enjoy music

Facebook is very rich in third party Applications are quite less common in and its native applications. From MySpace. popular games like mafia wars and Farmville to just for fun applications like zodiacs, predictions etc. are found abundantly in Facebook. The profile page of Facebook is MySpace allows users to alter the profile basic and cannot be altered. page using HTML and CSS. This fosters creativity among users to create a unique page for themselves. Spam doesnt seem as a problem Spam has been a headache for for Facebook till now. MySpace. Users bulletins and mails are spammed very often. With its new privacy settings, Privacy setting of MySpace is somewhat Facebook is much more secured less sophisticated than that of Facebook. social networking website where you can control what information you want to flow to whom. The interface of Facebook was MySpace was designed with designed giving priority to entertainment in the mind. Music, information so that it can be easily Videos and colorful layout are all part of accessed. the entertainment concept. Facebook is relatively new to the public. The layout leaves a person able to find what they need without a great deal of information. However because this is a younger program, there will still be plenty of steps to go before it is complete. MySpace has been around for many years, and has a great deal of information, tools, and layouts that have been updated. They are in the full swing of the full function of this online community program.

3.

Creativity

4.

Spams

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Privacy

6.

Target

7.

Experience

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Broadcasting Information

Facebook integrates wall and MySpace uses bulletin, blogs, blurbs etc. minifeeds to broadcast information to broadcast information shared by shared by the users. users.

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Conclusion
Both Facebook and MySpace are very popular social networking websites. Each has their own internal strengths and weaknesses. They also have opportunities and face risk from the environment. Ultimately, which social networking site you prefer really depends on what you like in a site. In addition to MySpace and Facebook, there are numerous other social networking sites that you can use to meet new people and to stay in touch with old friends. Each of these serves its own niche group. What is important to remember is that the popularity of each of these sites is going to wax and wane over time. To decrease this trend, the developers must focus on their strength and improve their weaknesses. Similarly they must grab opportunities in time and try to neutralize the threats.

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References
"Press Info", Facebook. Stone, Brad (2007-05-25). "Facebook Expands Into MySpaces Territory". The New York Times McGirt, Ellen. "Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: Hacker. Dropout. CEO. ", Fast Company, May 1, 2007 Dodero, Camille, "Lost in MySpace: Log on, tune in, and hook up with 22 million people online", The Boston Phoenix, July 2228, 2005 http://siteanalytics.compete.com/facebook.com+myspace.com+TWITTER.com/?metric=uv http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_space http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/02/11/matrix-buzz-vs-facebook-vs-myspace-vs-twitter-feb2009/

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