Bronte Media

According to Techcrunch Myspace plans to announce a more formal structure for platform partners next week, including this:

“And in a big change in strategy for MySpace, developers will be able to serve their own advertising within their applications, and keep 100% of the revenue”.

Before MySpace acquired the company for $250m it cut them off because they started serving ads. And everyone thought they would be screwed. Now, they would probably have been worth more if they stayed independent.

There is a lot of shit being bandied around at the moment about whether developers should develop on Facebook, because they might ’steal their idea’ or ‘copy them’.

Every time I hear ’steal idea’ or ’someone might copy the idea’ I feel like waving my arms wildly and screaming at the sky. Kind of like watching the New York Yankees play the Cleveland Indians.

If the idea is with merit, others will think of it. Not only that, they have already thought of it. Of course someone coming in, doing the same thing and beating you is a risk. That risk is called life.

If the Facebook platform allows a young startup of one or two people to gain an initial audience that is unreservedly a fantastic thing. It’s like saying you shouldn’t develop a web site because 1 million people might visit it in an hour and you will have scaling problems.

If you are in a position where Facebook might lock you out and copy your idea, that is guaranteed to be a better position than where you are now.

So I’d like to say something completely contrary: if you are developing an app that is social in nature, you better have Facebook or MySpace in mind from the beginning, otherwise you’re an idiot.