Myspace facts for kids
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Screenshot of Myspace in 2013
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| Type of business | Subsidiary |
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Type of site
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Social networking service |
| Available in | 14 languages |
| Founded | August 1, 2003 |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner | Viant Technology LLC |
| Founder(s) |
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| Key people |
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| Employees | 150 (2013) |
| Registration | Required |
| Launched | August 1, 2003 |
| Current status | Active |
Myspace is a social networking service from the United States. It started on August 1, 2003. Myspace was the first social network to become popular all over the world. It had a big impact on technology, pop culture, and music. It also helped other companies like YouTube grow early on. Myspace was the biggest social networking site in the world from 2005 to 2009.
In July 2005, a company called News Corporation bought Myspace for $580 million. By June 2006, Myspace was the most visited website in the United States. It even passed big names like Yahoo! and Google. At its busiest time in April 2008, Myspace and Facebook both had 115 million visitors each month. But Facebook soon became more popular globally. In May 2009, Facebook had more unique visitors in the U.S. than Myspace. Since then, Myspace has seen fewer users, even after trying new designs. By 2019, it had only seven million monthly visitors.
In June 2011, a company called Specific Media Group and singer Justin Timberlake bought Myspace. They paid about $35 million for it. Later, in February 2016, Time Inc. bought Myspace and its parent company for $87 million. Time Inc. was then bought by Meredith Corporation in January 2018. In November 2019, Meredith sold Myspace to Viant Technology LLC.
Contents
The Story of Myspace
How Myspace Started and Grew (2003–2005)
In August 2003, some employees from a company called eUniverse saw how popular Friendster was. Friendster was another social network. These employees decided to create their own website. They wanted to copy the best parts of Friendster. In just 10 days, the first version of MySpace was ready.
The company eUniverse had everything needed to launch the site. This included money, staff, technical skills, and servers. Brad Greenspan, who founded eUniverse, oversaw the project. He worked with Chris DeWolfe (MySpace's first CEO) and Tom Anderson (MySpace's first president).
The very first users of MySpace were eUniverse employees. The company even held contests to see who could sign up the most new users. eUniverse used its 20 million users and email subscribers to help MySpace grow fast. This helped MySpace become a leader among social networking sites.
MySpace quickly became very popular with teenagers and young adults. In February 2005, Chris DeWolfe talked with Mark Zuckerberg about buying Facebook. But DeWolfe turned down Zuckerberg's offer to sell Facebook for $75 million.
Becoming Huge with News Corp. (2005–2009)
In July 2005, News Corporation bought MySpace for $580 million. This was one of their first big internet purchases. At that time, MySpace had 16 million users each month and was growing very quickly. News Corporation saw this as a smart investment. They wanted to use MySpace to make money from online ads. They also wanted to send users to their other websites.
After being bought, MySpace kept growing super fast. In January 2006, the site was signing up 200,000 new users every day. A year later, it was 320,000 new users daily. MySpace even passed Yahoo! to become the most visited website in the United States. Users spent a lot of time on MySpace, looking at over 660 pages a month on average.
In 2006, MySpace started launching versions in other countries. This included places across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. By 2007, 30 million of its 90 million users were from outside the U.S.
The 100 millionth MySpace account was created on August 9, 2006. That same month, MySpace made a huge advertising deal with Google. Google agreed to pay MySpace $900 million over three years. In return, Google would provide search results and ads on MySpace. This deal was worth much more than what News Corporation paid for MySpace.
By October 2006, MySpace was making $30 million in revenue each month. Half of this came from the Google deal. The rest came from ads sold by MySpace's own team. MySpace was the top social networking site in many European countries by mid-2007.
In late 2007 and into 2008, MySpace was seen as the leading social network. It often had more traffic than Facebook. At first, Facebook didn't hurt MySpace's popularity much. This was because Facebook was mainly for college students back then. At its peak, MySpace was valued at $12 billion and had over 300 million registered users.
Why Myspace Declined and Was Sold (2009–2016)
On April 19, 2008, Facebook started to get more online traffic than MySpace. In May 2009, Facebook had more unique visitors in the U.S. From then on, MySpace steadily lost users.
One reason for its decline was that MySpace focused on entertainment and music. Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter kept adding new features to improve how people connected. Some people also think the big $900 million deal with Google hurt MySpace. It forced MySpace to show too many ads, which made the site slow and harder to use. Facebook, on the other hand, was creating a clean, new site design.
MySpace also had problems with spam, bad links, and fake accounts. It didn't fix these issues well, which made the site feel unsafe. Many users, especially teenagers who were MySpace's biggest audience, started moving to Facebook. Facebook was more popular with college students and later attracted older users too.
News Corporation's boss, Rupert Murdoch, was unhappy that MySpace didn't make as much money as expected. This led to changes in MySpace's leadership. In June 2009, MySpace also laid off 37.5% of its staff. This reduced employees from 1,600 to 1,000.
MySpace tried to redesign its site in 2009 to get users back. But this didn't work well. Users often don't like big changes to websites they use a lot.
By March 2011, MySpace had lost 10 million users in just one month. Its traffic fell by 44% compared to the year before. Advertisers also became less interested in working with the site.
In February 2011, News Corporation decided to sell MySpace. They hoped to get $50–200 million. But no one offered more than $100 million. On June 29, 2011, Specific Media bought MySpace for about $35 million. This was much less than the $580 million News Corp. had paid in 2005. Rupert Murdoch later called buying MySpace a "huge mistake."
New Owners and Today (Since 2016)
On February 11, 2016, Time Inc. bought MySpace and its parent company. Then, on January 31, 2018, Meredith Corporation bought Time Inc. Meredith later sold MySpace back to Viant Technology LLC in November 2019.
In May 2016, it was found that data from almost 360 million MySpace accounts was available online. This included email addresses and usernames. This data breach likely happened around 2008 or 2009.
Today, MySpace is mostly in a "read-only" mode. No new articles have been published since early 2022. You can't upload new media, and many old images and songs don't work anymore.
What Myspace Offered
Myspace had many features for its users. In 2005, users could put YouTube videos on their profiles. MySpace tried to ban YouTube videos for a short time, but users protested. So, MySpace brought the feature back.
MySpace also had mobile versions. In 2006, some phones had "Myspace Mobile" to access profiles. MySpace also offered classified ads, which grew quickly. It even had its own instant messaging tool called MySpace IM.
Music on Myspace
After News Corporation bought MySpace in 2005, the website started its own record label called MySpace Records. This was to find new music talent on Myspace Music. Artists could upload their songs, EPs, and full albums. Many famous artists like My Chemical Romance, Nicki Minaj, Lily Allen, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry became known through MySpace. By 2010, over eight million artists had been discovered on the site.
Sadly, on March 18, 2019, it was revealed that MySpace had lost almost all user content from its start until 2015. This happened during a server move and there was no backup. Over 50 million songs and 12 years of content were lost forever. However, in April 2019, the Internet Archive managed to save 490,000 MP3s. These songs, uploaded between 2008 and 2010, are now called the "MySpace Dragon Hoard."
MySpaceTV
MySpaceTV was a section for videos. On May 16, 2007, MySpace teamed up with news groups like National Geographic and The New York Times. They wanted to provide professional videos on the site. MySpaceTV officially launched on June 27, 2007.
MySpaceTV also created its own original web series. One of the first was Roommates, launched in October 2007. It aimed to give users a TV-like experience with internet features.
Site Redesigns
MySpace tried to update its look several times. In March 2010, it added new features. These included a system that suggested games, music, and videos to new users. Security was also improved, allowing users to choose who could see their content.
In October 2010, MySpace launched a new design. The company said it was no longer trying to compete with Facebook as a general social network. Instead, it would focus on music and target younger people. The goal was to get more users and have them spend more time on the site.
In November 2010, MySpace changed its logo. The word "my" was in a simple font, followed by a symbol that looked like a space. In the same month, MySpace also connected with Facebook. This allowed users to link their accounts, showing that Facebook had become the top social network.
In September 2012, another big redesign was announced. It made MySpace more visual and worked better on tablets. This new design was released on January 15, 2013. But in June 2013, this redesign deleted all old user blogs. This made many users upset and lost a lot of historical information.
Key People at Myspace
| Name | Role | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Chris DeWolfe | Co-Founder, CEO | 2003–2009 |
| Tom Anderson | Co-Founder, President | 2003–2009 |
| Aber Whitcomb | Chief Technology Officer (CTO) | 2003–2009 |
| Josh Berman | Chief Operating Officer (COO) | 2003–2008 |
| Travis Katz | Senior Vice President, Head of International | 2005–2009 |
More About Myspace
International Versions
Since early 2006, MySpace offered different versions for various regions. These versions showed local content. For example, users in the UK would see other UK users as "Cool New People." They would also see local events and ads. These versions also offered local languages or adjusted for spelling differences.
Myspace Mobile App
Myspace also redesigned its mobile app along with its website. The new app for Apple devices came out in June 2013. This app let users create and share GIF images. It also allowed users to watch "live streams" of concerts. New users could join Myspace through the app using Facebook, Twitter, or email.
The Myspace mobile app is no longer available on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. However, you can still visit Myspace.com from a mobile device.
The app also let users play Myspace radio channels. Users could pick from different music genres or artist stations. You could even build your own station by listening to songs on the MySpace website.
Images for kids
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Screenshot of Myspace in 2013
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Myspace logo from 2013
See also
In Spanish: Myspace para niños
- List of social networking websites
- MySpace Records
- Social software
- SpaceHey, a website similar to old Myspace
