When Rupert Murdoch acquired Myspace in 2005, the skeptics wondered why he would pay so much for an anarchic community which was only generating about $30m a year in revenue. That's how much the self-styled place for friends is now making per month, largely from advertising, according to an analyst for Pali Research — and that should more than double over the next 12 months. Let's stipulate that the affection for social networks, from advertisers such as the movie studios, can't last. Still, as one News Corporation exec says: "You know, it may turn out that social networks have been, not overhyped, but underhyped."

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