MySpace Finally Set To Launch Developer Platform on February 5th

The MySpace Developer platform, announced last June and expected to have launched much earlier than now, will finally be launched on Tuesday, February 5th according to sources at the company. Beginning today, programmers can pre-register for the MySpace API program

Amit Kapur, who has been promoted to be MySpace's new Chief Operating Officer, will oversee the new platform and has already mentioned that the API will support Google OpenSocial from the start, though few other details have been released. It has also been mentioned that three of MySpace's primary goals are "making the Web more personal, more portable (through both mobile and data portability), and more collaborative," according to TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld.

Although MySpace is quite late to jump on the developer API bandwagon (despite being the most popular social network), its delayed entry looks to have played to their advantage (sort of). MySpace has been watching its rivals platforms closely and appears to have studied what works and what doesn't, primarily concerning Facebook. In a conversation with Adam Ostrow, Kapur notes his priorities to be in areas where Facebook has had more trouble, such as privacy (dealing with feed spam) and monetization. Not onlywill MySpace help monetize developer applications through a "robust and mature monetization platform," but they also plan to allow developers to use data from MySpace (friends list??) within their created applications.

What plays against MySpace, however, is that now they must play catch up with Facebook, which has already had a chance to build a large following of developers and an even larger database of user applications.

It will be interesting to see how the MySpace API platform measures up against the Facebook platform. Although final details won't be available until launch, I wouldn't underestimate this social network veteran.

Developers can pre-register now by visiting Developer.MySpace.com.