MySpace Cuts Down App Virality

Posted by Nick O'Neill on May 21st, 2008 12:18 AM

Tom Anderson, President of MySpace, has posted about new changes to the MySpace developer policy for which limits and prevents misleading tactics for the sole purpose of “viral distribution.” One of the biggest changes is the limiting of incentives for sending communications in an application. Here’s what the updated guidelines state:

No incentives may be given to a member for sending a message, bulletin, comment, or any other form of communication. This includes â€œpoints,â€ â€œbucks,â€ increased standing, or even features within the app.

In one move MySpace has prevented virtual currencies from being used for the pupose of getting users to spam their friends. I will be posting more in depth about this issue tomorrow morning but there is a significant problem with developers wanting to take advantage of as many viral channels as possible no matter what the decrease in user experience is.

In my opinion, these aggressive strategies mimic the ones used by other sites including the Reunion.com spam that I posted about this evening. MySpace applications now have two weeks to make adjustments to their applications prior to being banned from the platform. MySpace is showing concern for the users over application developers which is a different dynamic than currently being provided on Facebook.

The bottom line is that viral distribution is not a right of developers on social platforms. This only leads one to ask: why build applications on platforms then when there is no viral distribution? While it’s in a company’s best interest to be in as many distribution channels as possible, the first channel may cease to be social platforms for many developers. Do you think the incentives for social application developers are starting to be reduced?

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Omarra Byrd 1 year ago 1 point
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I actually still love the MySpace site myself. I use it all of the time and it provides much more for me personally than just being a relative time consumer! What once was just just a haven for terrible teens has become so much more than just the hangout alternative to the mall. In fact I wrote a report about a lot of MySpace’s capabilities that aren’t even considered by most of it's users. Find out the real potential of MySpace by checking out my report here:

http://www.booksbonkers.com/MakingMySpaceMarket...

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bjoernlasse 1 year ago 1 point
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Why should they be reduced? The viral communication only works because people trust each other. If you destroy the trust and willingness of people to cope with the constant spam of applications: people start to get stressed because they do not know how to react. That leads to people not using myspace at all. It is similar to the "no do" for POS in shops. If you over stimulate people already at the entrance with attention grabbing offers - they will buy significantly less and are more likely to not come again.

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Taylor 1 year ago 1 point
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I don't know about you, but if I'm spamming my friends too much, they'll let me know.

As long as the viral distribution is not mis-leading, I think the people can behave without MySpace setting the rules.

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