MySpace to Generate $1B of Revenue in 2007

In a lengthy piece on the trials and tribulations of UGO Networks, Forbes' Erika Brown drops in an interesting nugget: News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace is expected to do $1 billion in revenue this year.

Now, people have been sticking their fingers in the wind on MySpace revenue since the day Murdoch bought it, but Forbes has better insight than most. In December, Technology Editor Peter Kafka (now Managing Editor of Silicon Alley Insider) wrote a profile of Murdoch in which he put MySpace revenue at "$30 million a month", or a run-rate $360 million a year. Forbes's Brown presumably has similarly strong Fox relationships, and she's now pegging the 2007 number at $1 billion. Assuming solid month-to-month growth off the $30 million December number, the $1 billion isn't even a stretch.

Four conclusions:

1. $1 billion is real money, perhaps even enough to finally silence those who continue to argue (pray) that advertisers will NEVER risk being associated with, gasp, user-generated content.

2. If MySpace can generate $1 billion in revenue, then so can Facebook. So the $10 billion price tag on the FOR SALE sign Facebook hung around its neck last week actually makes sense.

3. News Corp's $580 million MySpace buy was, indeed, a steal.

4. New York-based Fotolog, which is closing in on the 10 million member mark and closed a big deal with Google (GOOG) last week, could end up being worth real money some day, too.