Myspace Reveals Some Of New Zealand’s Most Watched

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Here’s Looking At You... Myspace Reveals Some Of New Zealand’s Most Watched
From celebrity streaker Lisa Lewis, to God himself, the MySpace ‘Most Watched’ are the people capturing Kiwis’ eyeballs and imaginations

[5th July, 2009] MySpace, the world’s premier social portal, today unveiled some of New Zealand’s most watched online personalities. An eclectic mix of artists and performers, the ‘MySpace Most Watched’ boast over two million views between them.

With a dominance of creative types from infamous streaker Lisa Lewis, to animator Andre Haronga, to tattoo artist Steve Ma Ching and photographer Sarah Everard, the diversity of the ‘MySpace Most Watched’ mirrors the diversity of the New Zealand population on MySpace.

MySpace’s Most Watched:

Name MySpace URL M/F Age MySpace Profile Views
Sarah Everard www.myspace.com/lastaprildancer F 27 846,000
God www.myspace.com/godthecreatorofeverything n/a n/a 246,000
Steve Ma Ching www.myspace.com/westerntattoostudio M 43 155,000
Lisa Lewis www.myspace.com/lisalewisracingltd F 28 140,000
Andre Haronga www.myspace.com/xxdray86xx M 23 134,500
Ike Hammond www.myspace.com/machinegunike M 32 97,000

“With over two million views between them, New Zealand’s ‘Most Watched’ MySpace users have clearly captured the nation’s eyeballs and imaginations. Bringing together the likes of Lisa Lewis and tattoo master Steve Ma Ching, the Most Watched list highlights New Zealand’s fascination with creative types. The popularity of these profiles also points to a broader trend whereby user generated platforms like MySpace have allowed people to become their own media channels with devoted followers and loyal fans, that are increasingly replacing traditional media identities in their cultural influence.” explains Susan Carlton, Head of Business Development, MySpace.com New Zealand.
Social Networking Strategist Laurel Papworth says the MySpace ‘most watched’ phenomenon is representative of a broader cultural revolution which is occurring both on and offline. “No longer do A&R Executives, newspaper journalists or fashion editors decide who or what is popular, or what information is of interest to society: MySpace's millions of members decide for themselves. The MySpace ‘Most Watched’ offers an insight to the changes in the way we Find, Filter, Finesse and Forward our entertainment information - we discover it for ourselves, decide which of our friends would also be interested, add a blog comment or video response then forward it on to that network of friends. Society has taken back sourcing and distributing of news amongst themselves, and MySpace plays an important part in that revolution,” she said.

TAKE A PEEK AT NEW ZEALANDS’S MOST WATCHED

Sarah Everard, 27 Dunedin, www.myspace.com/lastaprildancer

Dunedin based photographer Sarah Everard has been using MySpace for four years as a platform to showcase her photography, as well a channel to listen to music, watch videos and read and write blogs. Passionate about all forms of culture and an avid grassroots promoter, Sarah uses MySpace daily to discover bands and artists, build her own prolife and drive traffic to bands she likes or friends’ profiles when they are showcasing work.

As well as discovering music and artists, MySpace has also provided Sarah with a community network of artists and friends. Through connections made on MySpace, Sarah has been able to go backstage at some major music festivals and gigs to photograph and meet some of her favourite Kiwi and Aussie bands including Atlas, Evermore, OpShop and Thirsty Merc.

Sarah has no idea how she garnered such an online following “I'm just a girl from a small city at the bottom of the world, I'm not sure why anyone would find that interesting, but perhaps people are drawn to my MySpace profile because I never put forward anything that I'm not in person. From my words, to my photography to the music I love, I’m just me.”

Lisa Lewis, 28 Hamilton, www.myspace.com/lisalewisracingltd
Lisa Lewis first came to national prominence after streaking at an All Blacks Test Match in June 2006 and auctioning the bikini she wore on trademe.co.nz for $4,000. Since then, thousands of Kiwi’s have kept up to date with her antics via her MySpace profile. From the miraculous survival of her baby son following a stroke, to getting a job as Alt TV’s naked newsreader, to being getting kicked out of Sexpo for being too risqué, Lisa Lewis’s photos, blogs and stories have draw thousands of Kiwi’s to her MySpace profile to see and hear the latest.
“After the survival of my son I created a list of things I wanted to do before I died. Since then I have done all sorts of things, from naked skydiving, to raising money for charity, to speaking in Parliament, to being the first Kiwi to perform at Sexpo in Australia. It’s a never ending story, so I’m always updating my MySpace profile with the latest developments and answering people’s questions,” she said.
Andre Haronga, 23 Auckland Feilding, www.myspace.com/xxdray86xx
23 year old Andre Haronga from Feilding created his MySpace profile in 2006 to give fans from his popular youtube channel [www.youtube.com/dray86] a platform to find out more about the personality behind the cult animation series. Andre has created a series of animations over the last six years based on the popular online role-playing game, MapleStory, the most popular of his animations ‘Maple Kombat’ combined elements of the original game with combat-style action.
Through his art and online popularity, Andre has made countless friends and connections. With around 2,000 MySpace friends, Andre credits his popularly to the fact the he has an original animation style and subject matter. “There are hundreds of people that do what I do, but I took elements from a very popular game both in the US and Asia and moved away from the gaming side of things into a creative story that seemed to appeal to lots of people from around the world.”

Whilst studying, Andre had the time to create his animations, which can take between 40- 120 hours per episode to create. However, having just graduated with a Bachelor of Business Studies Information Technology, his animation work has recently taken a backseat. “Everyone else would consider me an animator but I just do it for fun and as a hobby. I feel like a story-teller and would one day love to work in the animations industry” he explains.

Steve Ma Ching, 43 Auckland, Steve Ma Ching, 43 Auckland, www.myspace.com/westerntattoostudio
43 year old tattoo artist Steve Ma Ching from New Lynn Auckland has been tattooing for 27 years and has attracted over 155,000 views to his MySpace profile. A master of all tattooing styles, Steve specialises in Pacific Island designs and is one of the world’s leading Modern Polynesian tattoo artists.
Steve showcases his work on his MySpace profile www.myspace.com/westerntattoostudio which he logs into at least twice a day to check for client inquiries and to plan his many working trips overseas. Renowned for his black and grey ink work, Steve’s has tattooed for the likes of Samoan sports star Sonny Bill Williams (his Samoan Sleeve) and has clients come to his western Auckland studio from as far as Texas to Hawaii after discovering his work on this MySpace profile.
Ike Hamon, 32 Auckland, www.myspace.com/machinegunike
32 year old professional stuntman, photographer and musician from Auckland, Ike Hamon joined MySpace over five years ago and now has around 17,000 friends. Although initially Ike joined MySpace to socialise, he quickly saw the synergy between his interests and the MySpace community and began to use the platform to showcase his photography and music.

As Ike explains; “MySpace mimics life, in that it is what you make of it. MySpace gives everyone the tools to connect with people from around the world, to develop friendships and networks and it knocks down the so-called six degrees of separation to one degree. I have met so many amazing people and been exposed to incredible music though MySpace.”

Having photographed the likes of AFI, Panic at the Disco, The Lemonheads and Fall Out Boy, Ike’s prolife attracts musicians and fans alike and he has clocked up almost 100,00 views. The allure of being a professional stuntman and his willingness to mentor people also drives many people to his profile. “I am always happy to answer questions, do my best with advice, share stories and pass on things I have learnt. In the words of Chris McCandless (Into the Wild) ‘Happiness is only real if shared’ and that sharing happens though MySpace.”

With Kiwi’s spending around half a million hours on MySpace each month, the popularity of these MySpace profiles also reflects a broader trend which sees Kiwis increasingly going online for their entertainment. MySpace provides New Zealanders with a destination to discover user generated as well as professional content that is both informative and entertaining as well as a channel to tap into local culture spanning music, fashion, film and politics [www.myspace.com/kiwihub].
MySpace.com launched in the New Zealand market in January 2007 and is the world’s premier social portal where around half a million New Zealanders connect every month. On MySpace Kiwis connect with people from all walks of life, including those with shared interests, friends, family, colleagues, associates and people they want to get to know better. MySpace users connect with other New Zealanders as well as the wider world, there are 126 million[1] people using MySpace each month across 30 international regions.

ENDS

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