• USA Today, Monday, December 24, 2007 11:45 AM

MySpace is sitting pretty at the top of the social-networking pile. It has more than twice the traffic of rival Facebook and has improved revenue by 10 times since News Corp. purchased it for $650 million in 2005. In fact, MySpace will do nearly that much in ad revenue this year, expecting $525 million worth of sales, which represents about 58% of the social-networking industry's total, according to eMarketer. Facebook, meanwhile, is expected to make $30 million on revenue of $140 million, according to Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck.

MySpace, with more than 120 million users worldwide, will turn four this year. The company's next challenge is to get its monthly user base--around 60 million--to spend more time there. As a result, MySpace is turning into more of a content provider, offering everything from music to professionally produced videos. Next year, the company plans to offer members the chance to create multiple profiles tailored to different groups of people: family, friends, work, etc.

Other new services include a gaming section, Internet calling through a new partnership with Skype, and Transmissions, a new program that lets musicians showcase and then sell music videos. Its membership with Google's OpenSocial should help the company's relationship with third-party developers, whose programs the company once tried to purge from the site.

Read the whole story at USA Today »