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+====== Myspace ======
+===== MySpace Launch Date =====
+Myspace was launched on August 1, 2003, by entrepreneurs Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson. [([[https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2021-08/date-history-myspace-launched|Chatham House]])]
+===== Founders' Background =====
+Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson came from a company called ResponseBase, which was the target of many complaints about spamming. [([[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/business/16online.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== Tom Anderson: Everyone's First Friend =====
+Tom Anderson was the first "friend" of MySpace members and was known as everyone's first friend on the platform. [([[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/business/16online.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== Friendster as Template =====
+MySpace founders were members of Friendster and used that site as a template for MySpace, but with a focus on commerce rather than networking. [([[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/business/16online.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== Music Wasn't the Original Plan =====
+Music wasn't an intrinsic part of the MySpace plan but rather a response to slow initial growth. When the site didn't become an overnight success, DeWolfe and Anderson found their answer in bands and music. [([[https://www.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/files/assets/faife/publications/spotlights/8.%20CASE06-MySpace.pdf#1|IFLA]])]
+===== Friendster Deleted Band Profiles =====
+On Friendster, if you were a band and you made a profile, they would delete it because they didn't want bands on their site. [([[https://www.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/files/assets/faife/publications/spotlights/8.%20CASE06-MySpace.pdf#1|IFLA]])]
+===== Customization Was an Accident =====
+When programmers rewrote MySpace's original code, they neglected to block users from inserting web markup language like HTML into their personal pages. The error left the site exposed to hackers, but the MySpace team decided to let it stand as a feature. [([[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Agger-t.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== Name Almost YoPeeps =====
+DeWolfe and his colleagues considered naming their site YoPeeps.com and Comingle.com before settling on MySpace, which DeWolfe had bought from a defunct online storage company. [([[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Agger-t.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== Tila Tequila's Migration =====
+Tom Anderson persuaded Tila Tequila to leave Friendster and join MySpace. She emailed all 40,000 of her Friendster friends and asked them to follow her to MySpace. [([[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Agger-t.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== 5,000 Bands Signed Early =====
+By March 2004, MySpace had some 5,000 bands and 1.2 million registered users. [([[https://www.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/files/assets/faife/publications/spotlights/8.%20CASE06-MySpace.pdf#1|IFLA]])]
+===== The 17-City Nightclub Tour =====
+Anderson and DeWolfe put together a 17-city nightclub tour with a photographer who took provocative shots of willing women for no fee. These photos were posted on MySpace to address the platform's gender imbalance. [([[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Agger-t.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== 350,000 Artists =====
+By 2005, some 350,000 artists including R.E.M. and the Black Eyed Peas had used the site to launch new albums and enable users to sample and share songs. [([[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-07-19/news-corp-buys-myspacecom/2061770#1|ABC News Australia]])]
+===== News Corp Acquisition Price =====
+News Corp paid $580 million to acquire Intermix Media, whose chief asset was MySpace.com, in July 2005. [([[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/19/technology/news-corps-youth-move.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== Deal Nearly Doubled Web Traffic =====
+The acquisition of Intermix's sites nearly doubled News Corp's US web traffic to 45 million unique monthly users. [([[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/19/technology/news-corps-youth-move.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== Google Ad Deal =====
+Within a year of the News Corp acquisition, a $900 million deal with Google to place ads on MySpace had more than covered the cost of the acquisition. [([[https://wwwnews.live.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13972392#1|BBC News]])]
+===== Peak Valuation =====
+At its peak, when News Corp attempted to merge it with Yahoo in 2007, Myspace was valued at $12 billion. [([[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/myspace-sold-35-million-news#1|The Guardian]])]
+===== 300 Million Registered Users =====
+By 2007, MySpace had 300 million registered users. [([[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/myspace-sold-35-million-news#1|The Guardian]])]
+===== Most Visited Website in US =====
+Within three and a half years of its launch, MySpace would surpass Yahoo as the most popular Web site in the United States. [([[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Agger-t.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== Facebook Overtakes MySpace =====
+In April 2008, Facebook surpassed MySpace in worldwide monthly visitors, marking the beginning of MySpace's permanent decline. [([[https://penji.co/the-rise-and-fall-of-myspace/|penji]])]
+===== User Decline 2008-2010 =====
+Myspace lost about a million visitors each month between 2008 and 2010. [([[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Myspace#1|Britannica]])]
+===== Advertising Revenue Collapse =====
+eMarketer estimated MySpace would earn about $183 million in worldwide ad revenues in 2011, down from $605 million at its peak. [([[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/myspace-sold-35-million-news#1|The Guardian]])]
+===== 2011 Sale Price =====
+News Corporation sold Myspace to Specific Media and Justin Timberlake for approximately $35 million in 2011. [([[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Myspace#1|Britannica]])]
+===== Massive Staff Reductions =====
+MySpace was expected to shed more than half of its 500 remaining staff as part of the 2011 sale, following a 30% staff reduction in April 2010 and a further cut of 47% in January 2011. Two years earlier, Myspace employed more than 1,400 people. [([[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/myspace-sold-35-million-news#1|The Guardian]])]
+===== Justin Timberlake's Stake =====
+A small portion of shares in Myspace belonged to singer Justin Timberlake after the 2011 sale to Specific Media. [([[https://www.tubefilter.com/2026/08/10/myspace-2026-relaunch-tim-chris-vanderhook/amp/#1|Tubefilter]])]
+===== Rebrand as Music Site =====
+In 2009, Myspace attempted to rebrand itself as primarily a music site. [([[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Myspace#1|Britannica]])]
+===== "Social Entertainment Destination" =====
+In October 2013, the new phase of MySpace went live, calling itself a social entertainment destination instead of a social network, while its userbase had dwindled to just 36 million. [([[https://www.statista.com/chart/26176/estimated-number-of-myspace-users-at-key-milestones/#1|Statista]])]
+===== 2016 Acquisition by Time Inc. =====
+In February 2016, MySpace and its parent company Viant were purchased by Time Inc. [([[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Myspace#1|Britannica]])]
+===== Data Loss in 2019 =====
+In March 2019, MySpace lost all user data from launch to 2015 due to a botched server migration. [([[https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47610936#1|BBC News]])]
+===== Peak User Count =====
+At its peak, MySpace had 115 million monthly visitors in April 2008, but by 2019 that number had fallen to around 7 million. [([[https://mspoweruser.com/does-myspace-still-exist-does-anyone-still-use-it/#primary#1|MSPoweruser]])]
+===== Still Exists as Archive =====
+By mid-2024, the site existed mainly as an archive; music media cannot be played, and no new articles have appeared since 2022. [([[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Myspace#1|Britannica]])]
+===== Age Restrictions =====
+Starting in June 2006, MySpace restricted how users over 18 could contact those aged 14 and 15, requiring older users to know the younger users' actual first and last names or email addresses rather than simply their usernames. [([[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/21/technology/myspace-to-add-restrictions-to-protect-younger-teenagers.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== First Sex Offender Database =====
+MySpace partnered with Sentinel Tech Holdings to create the first U.S. national database of convicted sex offenders, making it easier to track offenders on the Internet. [([[https://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2424879820070724/#1|Reuters]])]
+===== 90,000 Sex Offenders Removed =====
+MySpace identified and barred some 90,000 registered sex offenders from using the site over two years, a figure 40,000 higher than previously acknowledged. [([[https://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE51278C20090203/#1|Reuters]])]
+===== MySpace Was a Web Accident =====
+MySpace is described as one of the Web's great accidents, launched in the summer of 2003 by a company called eUniverse, located in an office park near the Los Angeles airport. [([[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Agger-t.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== Initial Growth Through Email =====
+MySpace's initial popularity came not from word-of-mouth, as is often assumed, but from an intense e-mail campaign. [([[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/business/16online.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== The "Every Day Is Halloween" Ethos =====
+When MySpace began, it would let people be whoever they said they were, embracing the philosophy that identity is provisional—a stark contrast to Facebook's real-name policy. [([[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Agger-t.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== Founders Blamed Murdoch =====
+The co-creator and former chief executive of MySpace accused Rupert Murdoch of ruining the social network after News Corp bought it for $580m in 2005. [([[https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/nov/18/rupert-murdoch-myspace#1|The Guardian]])]
+===== Slow Load Times and Spam =====
+After the News Corp acquisition, features began to load more slowly, and spam infiltrated the website. [([[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Myspace#1|Britannica]])]
+===== 2011 Bidding Started at $100M =====
+News Corp put Myspace up for sale in 2011, engaging investment bank Allen & Co to find a buyer. News had been looking for $100 million but settled for a $35 million offer from Specific Media. [([[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/myspace-sold-35-million-news#1|The Guardian]])]
+===== MySpace Lost $150 Million =====
+After the Vanderhook brothers acquired MySpace in 2011, they attempted to "modernize" the platform but ultimately lost a little over $150 million, according to their own account. [([[https://www.tubefilter.com/2026/08/10/myspace-2026-relaunch-tim-chris-vanderhook/amp/#1|Tubefilter]])]
+===== Twitter Passed MySpace =====
+Twitter passed Myspace in September 2010 as the third most trafficked "social media" site on the Web, according to comScore. [([[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2011/04/27/27readwriteweb-news-corp-has-finally-had-it-accepting-bids-33741.html#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== 2011 comScore User Data =====
+In March 2011, comScore figures showed Myspace lost more than 10 million unique users worldwide between January and February, falling from more than 73 million to almost 63 million. [([[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-12862139|BBC News]])]
+===== Attempt to Complement Facebook =====
+Myspace CEO Mike Jones said Myspace would no longer seek to compete with Facebook, but rather to complement it, with a focus on "social entertainment." [([[https://archive.nytimes.com/learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/will-you-use-the-new-myspace/?apage=3#1|The New York Times]])]
+===== The Real Migration Happened Later =====
+The big migration from MySpace to Facebook started happening in 2008 and 2009, well after the commercialisation had begun. [([[https://wwwnews.live.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13972392#1|BBC News]])]
+===== Real-Name Policy Difference =====
+Facebook saw a return to Friendster's requirement that users register using their real identity and offered users no customisation or personalisation options. [([[https://www.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/files/assets/faife/publications/spotlights/8.%20CASE06-MySpace.pdf#1|IFLA]])]
+===== Planned Comeback in 2026 =====
+Myspace's owners are hoping to launch a comeback in a crowded social media landscape, capitalizing on nostalgia and rejection of the traditional social media experience. [([[https://tech.yahoo.com/social-media/articles/really-bringing-myspace-back-heres-203251208.html#1|Yahoo]])]
+===== MySpace's Cultural Impact on Activism =====
+Myspace was more than simply the first successful social media platform to reach more than 100 million users; it was also the 'sandbox' for a new form of online activism that would influence social movements before Facebook and Twitter took over. [([[https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2021-08/date-history-myspace-launched|Chatham House]])]

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