Alan Meckler: News Corps’ Super Portal Ambition Back in 1994 JupiterMedia CEO Alan Meckler predicted that one day there would be 5 large portals and that one might even be worth $1 billion.
Today he comments on the prospects of Rupert Murdoch building a billion dollar portal powerhouse through My Spaces: “So can Rupert do it? I doubt it. I think he can make Myspace much larger and very profitable, but I think that getting the necessary “mindshare” to use Myspace is near impossible to obtain at this stage in Web history. One way to jump start such a concept would be to buy something such as Cnet.com. Cnet has lots of great communities and these appeal to all ages. Take Cnet and combine it in some fashion with Myspace and then you have something.
Myspace by itself will develop nicely and be quite powerful. But it lacks mega-mindshare. I doubt that even Rupert Murdoch can get mega-mindshare without jump starting Myspace with another large acquisition.”