• Financial Times et al., Thursday, October 22, 2009 1 PM

We smell possum. MySpace chief executive Owen Van Natta tells the Financial Times that the once reigning social network is no longer interested in competing with Facebook. Positioning MySpace solely as an online hub for music and entertainment, Van Natta says, "Facebook is not our competition ... We're very focused on a different space."

Granted, Facebook represented more than 58% of US social network traffic in September, according to Hitwise, while MySpace saw its share slip from 66% a year ago to just 30%. But MySpace is no Friendster (the first popular social net, which, for the record, is big in Japan.) The News. Corp unit remains one of the most visited sites on the Web with over 100 million unique users worldwide.

Of critical importance, MySpace is seen to be winning the critical arena of Web video, according to Nielsen. With 120.8 million video streams, Nielsen reported this summer that MySpace was the top social networking destination when ranked by streams and total minutes spent viewing video. What's more, MySpace Music, a joint venture in which top music labels have an equity stake, has grown 1,000% over the past year, and 200% annually since its launch, according to Van Natta.

So, rather than conceding defeat to Facebook, we suspect that Van Natta's comments represent some strategic jujitsu to pit MySpace's strengths against Facebook's weaknesses. Though Silicon Alley Insider says it doesn't matter what they do.

To that end, MySpace this summer acquired popular music recommendation startup iLike -- reportedly for about $20 million -- to bolster its music service, and the site's broader infrastructure. Also this summer, Van Natta brought in consultancy firm Media Link -- where Wenda Harris Millard has served as president since April -- to advise MySpace on its ad strategy going forward.

MySpace has struck a deal with Apple's iTunes store to allow its users to buy tracks without having to leave the MySpace site. It has integrated iLike, and launched Dashboard, an interactive tool for bands and musicians, as well as compiling the largest catalogue of music videos on the Web.

Van Natta said the applications were a "springboard" for the revamped MySpace and would be followed by other new features in the coming months that tap into the site's large online community.

"There is a movement around the socialisation of the Web," he tells the Financial Times. "People want to experience [what's available on] the Web with other people."

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