Interesting to hear that in spite of supercharged growth in the 18 months since News Corp. created Fox Interactive -- a 1,400-employee unit that oversees Fox's Web sites, including MySpace -- the division isn't having the best of fall seasons. COO Mark Jung stepped down this week, a mere nine months after his appointment. Jung had co-founded video gaming company IGN Entertainment, which Fox bought in September 2005 for $650 million in cash. Fox Interactive CEO Ross Levinsohn, said that Jung, '' is an entrepreneur at heart'' who left Fox for personal reasons. ``Mark decided it was time to move on.” Yeah, right Ross. Still with $650 million in my pocket, I don’t think I would have been around in the first place. Fox has had other problems as well. It‘s already seeing a slowdown in the growth of its biggest Web property, “MySpace,” (remember, you read it here first!) According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the number of unique visitors to MySpace fell from 49.2 million in August to 47.2 million in September. As someone just pointed out… Double- or triple-digit growth is hard to maintain, and the things that propelled MySpace initially are changing. MySpace has now morphed into more of a portal. The buzz that once defined it has diminished, there's a lot more competition, and if I was the Wizened of Oz, Id be looking over my shoulder at Google. ‘Cos they aint standing still!
It's my money, my greed, my empire and MySpace. And don't you forget it!
Comment Preview