Marc Andreessen, the serial entrepreneur whose
new VC fund was featured on our sister blog Dealscape,
said a few words on the corporate strategy of social networking sites Facebook Inc. and MySpace and microblogging site Twitter.
Andreessen (pictured), who founded Netscape Communications Corp., is on Facebook's board and has invested in Twitter. Facebook passed MySpace in terms of U.S. visitors for the first time in May, according to comScore Inc., and Andreessen admitted to Reuters that he regretted not investing in it. He also said it could do more to monetize its 250 million users and could start earning billions five years from now.
On Twitter, he told Reuters it's OK Twitter isn't making money for now because the site needs to focus on increasing its number of users and improving the features it offers so that no rival can swoop in. He also noted a hiccup in the strategy at MySpace, saying it focused too much on selling advertisements and not enough on developing the platform, leaving room for Facebook to come in and take market share.
Even so, MySpace, which is
cutting about 30% of its U.S. staff, still generates hundreds of millions of dollars more in revenue than Facebook.
Andreessen founded his VC fund -- Andreessen Horowitz -- along with partner Ben Horowitz. They say the new $300 million fund will have the ability to invest between $50,000 and $50 million in a company, depending on the stage and the opportunity. He said in a blog post, "Many of the best new technology companies require far less money up front to build the first product, but far more money later to scale into today's enormous global market, as compared to historical norms." -
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