Mysterious story of what happened to MySpace founder Tom Anderson after he sold the platform for $580 million
Tom from MySpace was one of the first social media greats, killing the game all the way back in 2003.
The social networking service came before Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but its first owner has seemingly disappeared from the internet.
In 2005, MySpace became the seventh most visited website on the planet, and when you think about how many more websites there are now compared to then, it’s astronomical.
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Just at its pinnacle of enormous growth, founder Tom Anderson sold the network to News Corporation for a staggering $580 million, which also owns Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.
He remained MySpace president until 2009 when he resigned, which must have been a tricky choice after being associated with the company for so long.
Not long after, Facebook started to gain some serious traction, and had over 360 million users.
MySpace wasn’t a huge success for News Corporation, as it made a huge loss after selling the company for $35 million in 2011.
So, what has Tom been doing since then?
It seems as though he’s been doing what any other strategic millionaire would do, invest in property and treat themselves to a few nice holidays.
The difference being, Tom took a camera with him and became a travel photographer.
But he didn’t totally leave the world of social media, as he was an advisor to a company that helped to design a Facebook app.
Despite still having a huge following online, he’ll never quite have the 200 million+ friends he had on MySpace back in the day.
After watching UNILAD's TikTok video about the MySpace founder, users were quick to reminisce about the platform.
One said: “He was my first friend on MySpace hahaha.”
A second user added: "I miss MySpace."
And a third claimed: "MySpace was the best social media website to ever exist."
While over on X, someone else said there are a plethora of things we can learn from the internet mogul.
They wrote: “Success is about what you DON'T do.
“Tom didn't use MySpace to mess with elections, steal people's data, inflate his ego, or increase hate speech.
“He just built something awesome that was net-positive for society.”
And another user had a special thank you for Tom, saying: “I also owe him for a small part in the creation of my kids, I met my eventual wife through MySpace.”
We have a hunch that this is just one of thousands of MySpace relationships!
Topics: Technology, Social Media
Mia Williams