With MySpace falling behind Facebook as the world’s largest online social network, MySpace tapped a former Facebook executive on Friday as its new chief executive.
Owen Van Natta, 39, has been named to replace Chris DeWolfe, a co-founder of MySpace, who stepped down as chief executive on Wednesday. News Corp, which owns MySpace, said Van Natta’s new role begins immediately.
Van Natta faces the lofty task of reinvigorating MySpace at a time when Facebook is growing at a faster clip and Twitter, the short messaging site, is grabbing scores of headlines and celebrity attention. While MySpace is still the largest social network in the US, it has only 130 million users worldwide, compared with more than 200 million for Facebook.
Even so, MySpace may be making more money, at least for now.
Research firm eMarketer estimates that the company brought in US$585 million in US ad revenue last year, nearly three times that of Facebook. A big chunk of that, however, comes from an ad-sharing deal with Google Inc that expires next year. Neither Beverly Hills, California-based MySpace nor Palo Alto, California-based Facebook discloses how much money they make.
The executive change could be energizing for MySpace, said Charlene Li, an industry analyst and founder of Altimeter Group.
“MySpace has a very interesting product and a loyal user base,” Li said.
But from a technology perspective, they’ve been stagnant, she said.
Facebook, meanwhile, continues to redesign and update the site, even if doing so often leads to user rumblings.
“Owen is coming from Facebook and the history they have with being much more technologically innovative than MySpace,” Li said.
She said shaking things up was the “whole purpose of a change in management.”
Facebook, where Van Natta spent about three years as chief operating officer and then as chief revenue officer, declined to comment on the appointment. Van Natta left the company in February 2008.
At Facebook, Van Natta helped negotiate a US$240 million investment from Microsoft Corp that valued the company at US$15 billion — though it later emerged that Facebook placed its value well below that.
MySpace’s other co-founder, Tom Anderson, had been president of the company and has been in talks about taking on a new role. News Corp did not give an update on that on Friday. Van Natta will report to Jonathan Miller, News Corp’s chief digital officer, who was named to the post on April 1.
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