By Reece O’ Reilly Butler
Myspace Overview
Myspace was founded in 2003 by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson. Before Facebook became the next popular social media, this was the social network. Myspace was one of the first social medias to encourage musical artists to promote themselves. A lot of Myspace acts found success and went on the become professional musical artists in the future. These include Lily Allen, the Artic Monkeys, Calvin Harris, and Adele. Between 2005 and 2008, Myspace was the most visited social network website on the planet. There were some points where Myspace was visited more than Google between these years.
Another reason users were drawn to Myspace was due to its customizability. Myspace allowed users to customize their page colour, background images, page layout and even allowed them to include media such as videos hosted on YouTube.
News Corp bought Myspace’s parent company eUniverse and renamed the company Intermix Media in July of 2005. At the time Myspace had just over 20 million users and was worth an estimated €270 million.
In 2007 things took a turn when many allegations of inappropriate relationships online and bullying were taking place on Myspace. Myspace took a stance of anti-bullying and inappropriate relationships “and decided to share information about registered sex offenders who are using the site with state attorneys general.”
It was believed that December of 2008 was the month that Myspace peaked. At the time Myspace had over 75 million users (about twice the population of California) in the US alone. Facebook had begun to catch up with Myspace and by January of 2009 Facebook had already overtaken Myspace. In the same year Chris DeWolfe, original co-founder stepped down as users began to leave the site and became more inactive.
In 2010 and 2011 there were major layoffs in Myspace employees due to lack of budget and more users becoming inactive. Between 2009 and 2010 they lost half of their monthly visitors and a substantial portion of their active users.
In 2011, Chris DeWolfe, previous co-founder of Myspace tells the Bloomberg Businessweek that he doesn’t use the site much but when he does, he “cringes”.
In 2012 the site had only 25 million unique U.S. visitors and by 2013 it was ranked 215 by a total web traffic. This was in stark contrast to the beginning of Myspace.
However, Myspace never officially shut down and is still active to this day. In 2021 Myspace has become much less of a social media website and has transitioned into a curated music and entertainment site. Myspace, while not as popular as it once was, is not completely dead yet with the site boasting near 7 million monthly visits.
Timeline of Myspace Key Events
| Date | Event |
| 2003 | Myspace is founded by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson. |
| 2005 | Myspace quickly becomes the most visited social media website in the world. |
| 2005 | Myspace is bought by News Corp and is estimated at €270 million with 20 million active users. |
| 2006 | Myspace, on numerous occasions, is visited more than Google. |
| 2007 | Myspace has issues with severe cyber-bullying and registered sex offenders. Myspace decides to share information about registered sex offenders who are using the site. |
| 2008 | December of 2008 is when Myspace hit it’s peak with over 75 million active users. |
| 2008 | Myspace music was launched to help support musical artists due to Myspace’s popularity of music on its site. |
| 2009 | Facebook overtakes Myspace swiftly and Chris DeWolfe, original co-founder leaves Myspace. |
| 2011 | There are major layoffs in Myspace and total site visitors drops by half. |
| 2012 | Myspace has been completely overtaken by Facebook and has only 25 million unique visitors in the year. |
| 2021 | Myspace still exists, while not nearly as popular. Myspace is primarily now used as a curated music and entertainment site. |
References/Notes
Ainsley, H., 2019. Did You Know These Acts All Started Off On Myspace?. [online] Officialcharts.com. Available at: <https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/myspace-acts-who-found-success-on-the-official-charts__25882/> [Accessed 14 January 2021].
Kozlowski, L., 2012. New Life: How Myspace Spawned A Start-Up Ecosystem. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorikozlowski/2012/05/15/how-myspace-spawned-a-startup-ecosystem/?sh=7bf7d63f40ba> [Accessed 14 January 2021].
Encyclopedia Britannica. 2020. Myspace | Web Site. [online] Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Myspacecom> [Accessed 14 January 2021].
SEO Web Marketing Internet and Social Media News. n.d. Myspace Company History – SEO Web Marketing Internet And Social Media News. [online] Available at: <http://www.seowebmarketing.co.uk/myspace-company-history/> [Accessed 14 January 2021].
Social Industries | Managed Social Media Advertising. 2018. Did It Really Start With Myspace? A Brief History Of Social Media – Social Industries | Managed Social Media Advertising. [online] Available at: <https://social.industries/2018/05/23/did-it-really-start-with-myspace-a-brief-history-of-social-media/> [Accessed 14 January 2021].
Huffpost.com. 2011. Huffpost Is Now A Part Of Verizon Media. [online] Available at: <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/myspace-history-timeline_n_887059?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAILZB53SHIBmaIIHca5_NU5zfrDtb3eiwfYSosHrMc9KllJ2e7taYoMfO8hbW52qmhs9JJQGtwlH19cMNZfAP8FmDW_UbvLV1DZ8PKwhcJVd-0ZBRtuMS0-jlkrUPRVMXzvbDR0Fzv8taH336RV-6A9Ged47M_bP0xt1vS6Tj7q5&slideshow=true#gallery/5bb385dce4b0fa920b9b4ab1/18> [Accessed 14 January 2021].
Bloomberg.com. 2011. Bloomberg – Are You A Robot?. [online] Available at: <https://www.bloomberg.com/bw/magazine/content/11_27/b4235053917570_page_2.htm> [Accessed 14 January 2021].
Moreau, E., 2020. Is Myspace Still Around. [online] Lifewire. Available at: <https://www.lifewire.com/is-myspace-dead-3486012> [Accessed 14 January 2021].
