MySpace is still trying to find a way to make itself even more profitable. It’s one of the most successful social media platforms available, but they are still not as profitable as they could be.

Following on the heels of Facebook, and even Apple, with the iPhone App store, they are looking for a way to insert virtual gifting and pay-to-use applications. Facebook has an inner site gift economy, though they have not yet opened up the virtual gifting to developers.

The race is on to see which site develops and releases their own pay to play model. The real concern with this is that so far, these sites have been free for all to use, and with the addition of these pay-for-use applications, the adoption rate among users will drop considerably. The only way to make sure they are successful, and useful, would be to have all of your contacts using the same applications. That will be a hard sell, especially among sites like Facebook, where many of a users contacts might be co-workers or management, or even people that work at the same company but that they might not have contact with on a daily basis. If a core group of contacts adopts and uses an application, that would work, but with some Facebook users having hundreds of contacts, that becomes a daunting proposition.

Article Tags: ads | apps | MySpace | profits

Filed under: Brand Extension, Digital Marketing, Digital Media, Life, MicroBlogging, social media