MySpace took
steps to turn the social network into a social portal with a new service that connects people to local business listings and gives brands a new avenue to reach consumers.
Unveiled in private
beta Tuesday, MySpace Local will pull in Citysearch business listings for restaurants, bars and nightlife. Available information runs the gamut from addresses and photos to menus, maps and locations.
The new partnership with the IAC/InterActiveCorp-owned company will likely include most business listings throughout the 75,000 cities and neighborhoods that Citysearch's local-online
guide offers.
Citysearch went through a complete site redesign in November. It ripped out its backend system and overhauled the local online guides, adding social and mobile applications.
MySpace hopes to tap into that neighborhood-level data to expand in its geographic roots.
The MySpace Local service becomes available throughout the U.S. in April. Initial sponsors for the
site are Outback Steakhouse and Coors. Businesses will have an option to use MySpace's MyAds service to promote the pages.
Social functions include ratings, reviews and recommendations
through friends. Listings are grouped by cities and offer new local search functions. Users can search by neighborhood, small business categories, and cuisine type. In time, MySpace Local users will
have an option to make reservations and upload photos and videos from experiences at venues.
Whether MySpace's model -- which has worked well for music idol Taylor Swift, among others --
will also work for orange juice and laundry detergent is anyone's guess, according to Jeff Berman, MySpace's president of sales and marketing. "In this economic environment we are quite
proud to provide a little bit of help to small businesses owners," he said during a call with reporters.
Berman and MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe pointed to the success the company has had
in finding undiscovered music talent, suggesting small businesses might have similar good fortune with reviews and recommendations.
About 50% of MySpace users are on Citysearch monthly. Berman
said there is healthy overlap in users, but a new audience available to tap, too.
But MySpace is fighting an uphill battle to raise trust in the brand, according to IDC Research Analyst
Caroline Dangson, who focused on social media. "The trust is greater for Facebook, in general, compared with MySpace," she said, citing a recent IDC U.S. Online Consumer Attitude Survey that
suggests people could have concerns. "There's a culture on MySpace that's different from Facebook."
Meanwhile, Dangson said both MySpace and Citysearch benefit from the
deal. MySpace gains the sales force that can support advertising for small- to-medium-sized businesses. Citysearch gains "the stickiness through a social network" to develop a user base they
don't typically attract.
Mobile is the one piece lacking that would make the deal more attractive, she said, adding: "We're seeing more people use MySpace on mobile than
Facebook."