History of Myspace

The history of Myspace isn’t a long one, since the Web site has only been around for a few years. Myspace.com is a social networking site, intended to bring various users together for personal and professional interaction. It began in 2003 and has since grown to become one of the most popular Web sites in the world. It currently boasts over 80 million users and is only gaining in its momentum.

The Early History of Myspace
The face of Myspace is undoubtedly Tom Anderson, co-founder and now dot com millionaire. Every new user is automatically connected with their first “friend”, who is Tom himself. He is known for his trademark profile picture, a low-key snapshot of him wearing a white t-shirt and sitting at his computer. (It is hard to believe that he is now an industry giant.)

It was in July of 2003 that Tom, Chris DeWolfe and a small team of programmers launched what would become a cultural phenomenon, Myspace.com. DeWolfe was a business graduate, while Tom had several liberal arts degrees, including English and Film. Its unique interface helped the site to boom immediately, eventually leading to a multi-million dollar corporate buyout.

At the time of Myspace’s birth, the reigning champ on the social networking scene was Friendster.com. However, the Friendster phenomenon (which has peaked at around 27 million users) would be nothing compared to Myspace’s impact. Once Myspace appeared, Friendster users left in droves. Why? This is often attributed to Myspace’s customizable profile pages. While Friendster allowed users to enter personal info and upload photographs, Myspace actually supported fully customizable pages and media. Soon, millions of teenagers and young adults were learning rudimentary HTML.


Recent History of Myspace
In April of 2006, it was reported that approximately 10 million new users joined Myspace.com. Given those numbers, it is hard to believe the site is going out of fashion any time soon. It has become a promotional tool for many professionals, especially musicians and filmmakers. There have also been Myspace celebrities born in the past year or two, including Tila Tequila and Jeffree Star (two people who gained popularity merely through their Myspace profiles).

In 2005, Rupert Murdoch purchased Myspace’s parent company, Intermix Media, for a reported $580 million. It is estimated that the site’s current yearly revenue is $20 million and growing (the site is covered with various paid advertisements). Myspace is now branching out into the music industry with the launch of Myspace Records. Various concert series are also being hosted by the site, such as Myfestival, a UK tour featuring many popular bands from the site.


Myspace Controversy
Although the site is enjoying a tremendous success and is serving most of its users very well, there has also been a lot of controversy born from it. Underage users, in particular, have caused quite a stir. Users under 16 are protected with private profiles that cannot be viewed by outsiders. Unfortunately, many children are lying about their age to have a public profile. As a result, they are left vulnerable to potential pedophiles and otherwise unethical site users.

Although Myspace users are not supposed to post anything graphic or offensive on the site, many ignore these terms of service. From documentation of drug use to child pornography, it has been found on the site. Also, many arrests have been made in recent years because of careless admissions of guilt on the site. In one unfortunate case, a young Myspace user actually used a “friends bulletin” to post his suicide note online. Things like this have given the site a bad reputation with many, although a majority of profiles are completely lawful and benign.


By : A. Cottrell

Source : www.music.lovetoknow.com