After months of speculation – one rumour suggested MySpace was demanding a seven-figure upfront fee from mobile operators to partner with it – the social networking site has signed an exclusive deal with Vodafone in Europe.
It involves a MySpace Mobile app being preloaded on the operator's handsets (you'll be able to download it over the air too), giving access to profiles, friends, blogs and messaging. It's launching first in the UK.
But hang on. Without wishing to be rude, what's this exclusivity about? A globally popular social networking community, available online to all internet users regardless of their ISP, is now only going to be available on mobile in Europe to Vodafone subscribers? Surely that's a rubbish idea? Even if it does follow MySpace's strategy in the US, where it kicked off with Helio.
Maybe Vodafone paid MySpace a ton of cash to make it worth their while, and it's unclear how long this exclusivity period lasts. But the idea of restricting any social networking service to a single operator just seems counterproductive.