MySpace = Beer

Was speaking with former eBay-er, now head of business development at Photobucket, Dylan Swift this morning. Our conversation turned to MySpace, and Dylan made a great observation. All of the recent negative press on MySpace (last night's Primetime on ABC for example) focuses on MySpace exposing kids to drugs, sex and other bad influences. Based on these reports, MySpace is something that parents should control and regulate with their kids, like beer and smoking.

Now, name me a better way to market a product to teenagers than to have an unrelenting, nationwide media campaign with 1) parents stating its bad for kids and 2) that MySpace is a faster, more efficient way to expose teenagers to multiple vices in their local area/network. Is it any surprise that MySpace's growth has rocketed along with the negative press?

I assume at some point when MySpace has signed on every teen in the U.S. that this will result in negative returns for the site. Until then, MySpace is enjoying the ride...