MySpace 'will fail'

2007-04-20 13:00

Popular social-networking site MySpace will fail in a few years time, Jimmy Wales, self-confessed geek and founder of Wikipedia has told News24 in a multi-media interview published on Friday.

South Africa's No 1 website, News24, interviewed Wales to get his take on wide-ranging issues concerning the internet industry, his future plans and personal details like whether he was a geek, in a multi-pronged presentation consisting of a written article and a video interview.

"News24 has made a conscious decision to expand our normal breaking news content offering with multi-media content," said Jannie Momberg, News24 editor.

"We have published a number of multi-media pieces in the last couple of months. The multi-media content adds an extra layer to our content. It has proved extremely popular with our users. Pieces have been done on a wide range of topics including a behind the scene look at Robben Island, the lotto debacle and a picture essay on the Durban flooding that received more than 16 000 views," said Momberg.

"The media is an exciting place to be right now. There is a global media revolution underway. Opportunities abound every second. We are aiming to leverage the ones that matter. There is lots of hype around vehicles such as podcasts at the moment but we are going to maintain focus on how to tell a story better to our reader - whatever the vehicle may be." said Elan Lohmann, News24 Publisher.

"Our approach is not to bang the drum when we launch a new service.. We prefer a subtle approach and our 800 000 local users, making us the top local website by a stretch, let us know if they like a new features and these then get passed along by word of mouth. A number of new exciting products will be launched in the coming year, with the multi-media content being the start of big things to come," said Lohmann.

Some quotes from the Wales interview:

"I pretty much roll out of bed and log on"

"It's good to have a geek hobby that turns into a career."

View the Jimmy Wales video interview here:

Broadband stream

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Read the interview here:

News24 is available online at www.news24.com, on DStv Channel 59 and on mobile at m.24.com

- News24