MySpace Developer Platform Launching February 5th

Adam Ostrow is breaking the news that MySpace is going to be launching their developer platform on February 5th. This is huge news for those in the social platform space. MySpace is currently the largest social network on the web and continues to grow at a decent pace (although it is currently being outpaced by Facebook). So what does this mean to companies looking to leverage the new platform?

For developers it is going to mean many sleepless nights as they rush to take advantage of a clean slate yet again. For businesses it is going to mean another distribution channel that they can expand their reach into for advertising and marketing purposes. One question that remains is how viral will this new platform be? We witnessed the launch of the Bebo platform and since then there have been a number of applications that have launched but the rate of growth has been slower than Facebook.

One interesting aspect of this launch is that MySpace will support OpenSocial from the beginning. This may give OpenSocial a much needed boost but it will be difficult to tell what type of impact this will have considering OpenSocial is still in beta. It also appears as though MySpace may leverage their advertising network to help developers monetize their applications from the get go. This has been one of the biggest issues for applications on Facebook and Bebo.

Social Platform experts and advertising professionals will be eagerly awaiting the launch of the MySpace platform. If you want to be one of the initial developers on the platform, you can soon pre-register at http://developer.myspace.com/ (must be logged in to view). 2008 is shaping up to be the year of social platforms and data portability.