Facebook gets Murdoch's goat

SOCIAL NOTWORKING website Facebook blew past its competitor Myspace in May, angering reichwing media baron Rupert Murdoch whose News Corp splashed over half a billion dollars to buy Myspace in 2005.

Facebook's traffic grew 162 per cent since May 2007 to 123 million unique visitors. Myspace trailed with just 114 million hits showing only five per cent growth year on year.

Facebook's explosive success over its rival prompted a sour-grapes remark from Murdoch, who reportedly said that Facebook has "done a great job of being flavour of the month the last six months of last year." Pssst, Rupert... we don't work for you so we might observe that six months in a row probably isn't merely a passing fad. Murdoch also said Facebook isn't really a proper social networking venue, but rather is "just a directory."

The aging cheerleader for corporate globalisation, authoritarian governments and endless wars must be feeling like the acquirer of a once-hip nightclub that's been abandoned by the fickle hordes of yoof in favour of the joint down the street that's the new cool place to be. µ

L'Inq
PC Pro