MySpace: A Place For Targeted Ads

If you are a MySpace user, you may realize that you REALLY like the ads that start appearing next to your profile. This is because News Corporations’s prized social network possession, MySpace.com is collecting personal information contained within profiles and blog posts and selling advertisements.

Adam Bain and Arnie Gullov-Singh are leading MySpace’s targeted advertising efforts. Peter Levinsohn, President of FOX Interactive Media addressed the intiative at a Merrill Lynch conference in Los Angeles, Calif. today. “We are blessed with a phenomenal amount of information about the likes, dislikes and life’s passions of our users,” stated Levinsohn. “We have an opportunity to provide advertisers with a completely new paradigm.”

Bain also mentioned that MySpace will track the groups that the users belong to, who their friends are, age, gender, and what ads users have been receptive to. There are over 100 employees working through MySpace’s “monetization technology group.” According to a marketing research company, when new targeted ad system is implemented, MySpace revenues will rise from $40 million to $70 million.

The controversy that lies within these new targeted ad systems is that many users are not aware that they are being watched. As a social network user, one should realize that privacy options are limited for every social network.

Information Source:
[1] The New York Times: MySpace to Discuss Effort to Customize Ads

Related posts:

1. MySpace.com To Make News Social?
2. MySpace Proactively Blocking TOS Violating + Other Third Party Widgets
3. MySpace Users, Who Are You Going To Choose… Photobucket or MySpace?
4. MySpace & Facebook losing users because of spam and fake profiles
5. MySpace.com Vs. TheGlobe.com Lawsuit Settled