MySpace: 'we need to innovate more rapidly'

MySpace: the place for self-expression
MySpace: the place for self-expression

MySpace needs to continue to innovate if it is survive as a website, according to its new CEO Owen Van Natta.

Fresh from being an executive at the website's main rival Facebook, Van Natta was speaking at All Things Digital conference, where he mapped out his plans for MySpace.

"If you don't continue to innovate... people are going to shift interest elsewhere," he explained. "We need to continue to innovate a lot more rapidly than we have been."

Express yourself

When comparing MySpace to Facebook, Van Natta felt that his new home was the place to express yourself.

"I think they are both driving this notion of social activity on the web," he said, while adding "there's a lot of self-expression that is happening [on MySpace]. We need to seize on that."

Currently MySpace is firmly in second place when it comes to social networking websites, but it is still posting huge online traffic. Recent figures show that 6.9 million UK users visited the site last month.

But the warning signs are there, as the year before the site had around 8.4 million UK users, a drop of around 18 per cent.

Van Natta isn't too fazed with the drop in figures, and is seemingly excited with the MySpace's prospects, explaining that "there's just so much to build" on the website, but that's exactly why he took the job on.

Via CNet

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.