Lessons in Being Evil

We sometimes like to take a look at companies who have failed, so that we can learn from their mistakes. We also like to take a look at companies as they start that decline. Sometimes we cheer the inevitable and sometimes we cheer for the impossible.
We then sit back and analyze these companies and inevitably the questions are asked.
"What could they have done to save themselves?"
"What was the start of this decline?"
"Was this decline a shift in consumer trust or a shift in consumer behavior?"
"How can my company avoid this?"

Okay, so you're probably wondering - Where does this evil part come into play?
Well, it shows up almost everywhere.
Companies usually start their decline due, in part, to a change in policy. This change can take the form of a simple price increase, or maybe an alteration to a contract. It can seem minute, but over time it slowly shifts consumer confidences and the company falters.

Let's take a look at a fallen social media competitor.

MySpace was launched by a group of programmer in August 2003. Initially the founders thought about charging a fee to use the social networking service. Luckily this idea was thrown out because the founders took a minute to think about it and realized that keeping the service free would make their users happier and encourage them to sign up.
MySpace became the most popular social networking site on the web. It had more users and page views than Facebook.
In July 2005, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million. They immediately sought new ways to monetize the site, including new features and more invasive advertising.
A year later, in August 2006, they added their 100th million account. In 2007 MySpace was still beating out Facebook in page views, but the wheels were slowly turning.
And then a shift occurred.
In 2008, Facebook took over MySpace.
The shift continued.
Facebook is now the most popular social network available.
There is talk that MySpace may be auctioned off in 2011. It's estimated worth?  $50 to $200 million. *

There is generally very few disagreements with the thought that News Corp. is indeed evil. They are, after all, one of the biggest companies around. They also seem to have a knack for losing touch with their core consumers. Such is the case with MySpace.
And such may be the case with Facebook one day.

Lesson #1 in Being Evil - Exploit, ignore, piss off your core consumers. After all, is there anything better than ruining someone's day?

*Thanks to Wikipedia for the info and to L. Marie for the photo.