WhereIsAtlas · Social networking

MySpace

The first social network to rule the world — for about three years

Acquired — Sold for $35M in 2011 after News Corp paid $580M; now a music-focused site.

Launched in 2003 by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, MySpace let users build heavily customised profile pages, rank their 'Top 8' friends and — crucially — let bands upload music. By 2006 it was the most visited website in the United States, with over 100 million monthly users, and News Corp had paid $580 million for it.

The decline was rapid. Facebook's cleaner design won campuses, then everyone; spam and redesign whiplash drove users away; and in 2011 News Corp sold MySpace to Specific Media — with Justin Timberlake as a co-owner — for roughly $35 million, one of tech's most brutal write-downs.

A 2013 redesign repositioned the site around music and entertainment. It still exists, but its most famous relic is the 2019 disclosure that a server migration had quietly lost everything users uploaded between 2003 and 2015 — 50 million songs gone, a digital-library tragedy in miniature.

Timeline

  1. Aug 2003 — Launch: Built in ten days by eUniverse staff, MySpace opens with customisable profiles and band pages. (Santa Monica, CA)
  2. 2005 — News Corp pays $580M: Rupert Murdoch buys the network, calling social 'the new frontier'.
  3. Jun 2006 — Most visited site in the US: MySpace tops Google in US visits; Tom Anderson's 'everyone's first friend' face greets 100M users.
  4. 2008 — Facebook overtakes: Cleaner design and a real-name culture pull users away; decline accelerates.
  5. 2011 — The $35M fire sale: News Corp sells to Specific Media and Justin Timberlake for about $35 million.
  6. 2019 — 12 years of music lost: A server migration permanently deletes roughly 50 million songs uploaded 2003–2015.
  7. Today — A quiet music site: The platform persists as a music-and-entertainment property under The Arena Group era holdings.

Quick facts

Launched
Aug 2003
Founders
Tom Anderson, Chris DeWolfe
Sold to News Corp
$580M (2005)
Resold for
≈ $35M (2011)
Peak users
≈ 115M (2008)
2019 data loss
≈ 50M songs from 2003–15

Lineage — where the name went

MySpace never died — it was sold. Five times. This tree follows the network through every owner, from a $580m purchase to becoming a footnote inside a magazine publisher.

  1. 2005 — MySpace acquired by News Corp ($580m — one of the worst acquisitions in media history)
  2. 2011 — MySpace acquired by Specific Media (reported at $35m)
  3. 2016 — Specific Media rebranded as Viant (the parent took the Viant name)
  4. 2016 — Viant acquired by Time Inc.
  5. 2018 — Time Inc. acquired by Meredith
  6. 2021 — Meredith acquired by Dotdash Meredith (IAC's Dotdash bought Meredith)

Entities in this tree: MySpace (brand, 2003); News Corp (company, 2005); Specific Media (company, 2011); Viant (company); Time Inc. (company, 2016); Meredith (company, 2018); Dotdash Meredith (company, 2021)

Sources

  1. Wikipedia: MySpace — Wikipedia (2026-01-10)
  2. MySpace loses 12 years of music — The Verge (2025-12-10)
  3. News Corp sells MySpace — BBC News (2025-12-10)

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