MySpace is a sinking ship, and it's sinking fast. According to the most recent data from comScore, the social-networking site's traffic declined by 10 million unique visitors in just a month.
Between January and February of this year, MySpace's traffic dropped by 14.4 percent, from 73 million to 63 million unique visitors. Additionally, traffic to the site is about half what it was a year ago. The news comes as the site's owner, News Corp, tries to sell the troubled company.
MySpace's struggle has been widely reported, and there has been chatter for months that News Corp. was looking to sell or spin-off the site. News Corp. began 2011 by laying off nearly half of MySpace's staff. In an earnings call earlier this month, chief operating officer Chase Carney confirmed the rumors when he said "now is the right time" for the company to start exploring these options.
Interest in MySpace could come from many different places. Social gaming company Zynga has been mentioned in conversation as a possible suitor for the site.
"It's like slowing down at the scene of an accident," a person with knowledge of the discussions told Tech Crunch. "Everyone wants to take a look at how bad things have become."
It's likely that News Corp., which bought MySpace in 2005 for $580 million, will continue to lose money on the site. Although News Corp.'s last earnings report was largely positive, the Digital Media Group, the part of the company that owns MySpace, disclosed a "$275 million pre-tax charge" that it spent on "organizational restructuring" for the social-networking site.
The same filing also revealed that MySpace's shares had appreciated by 16 percent, but that margin of improvement was overshadowed by previous losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. In the last quarter of 2010, MySpace lost $156 million and a year prior, the site lost $125 million.
In October, MySpace switched its focus from core social networking to music and entertainment. About a month later, Facebook and MySpace joined forces to announce a new partnership to allow users to link the two services and receive customized, entertainment-based updates on MySpace based on their Facebook preferences.