MySpace adding a developer platform, What does this mean for Facebook?

The hot news today is that MySpace is adding yet another option on their popular social networking site allowing developers to create applications for users. What does this mean for Facebook who already has these applications implemented into their growing social networking site?  Probably nothing because Facebook will continue to be a viable ecosystem for third-parties to develop and promote their applications.  The good part about MySpace opening up a developer platform is that it will keep instill some competitive energy into a social networking market that seems to have stagnated over the past year.

As of today, Facebook is one of the few companies that has actually been able to recruit top talent out of Google.  This makes for an interesting comparison because to date, MySpace is not even close to being able to recruit people out of Google.  I think it has to do with several issues.  Facebook is an technology-centric company with business as a secondary focus, whereas MySpace seems to be more a business-centric company with innovative technology as a secondary focus.  The second reason that Facebook can draw more attractive talent is that MySpace has already materialized an exit and therefore anybody who joins MySapace has no shot at hitting it big with equity.  On the other hand, Facebook stock is very appealing to top engineers because at this time, Facebook has the best shot at being the next big technology IPO since Google (I predicted this and am sticking to my claim).

For sure even if MySpace begins offering equity , it won’t matter because I can’t imagine anybody caring about owning stock in Fox.  But maybe this developer platform will be the first step in MySpace’s attempt to become more engineering-centric and actually try to give facebook a run for its money when it comes to releasing innovative and compelling products to the market.