Myspace

Myspace, website that was the most popular social network from 2005 to 2008.

Myspace is a free, advertising-supported service that allows users to create Web “profile” pages that feature photographs, express their interests, and, most importantly, link to other people’s profiles. The site can be used to keep in touch with friends, “meet” and become friends with new people, or find potential romantic partners. Members must be at least 13 years old, and the profiles of members younger than 16 cannot be viewed by members older than 18, in order to reduce access by potential sexual predators.

Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, employees of the Internet marketing company eUniverse (later Intermix Media), created Myspace in 2003. It quickly distinguished itself from established social networking sites by allowing—and in fact encouraging—musical artists to use the site to promote themselves, earning Myspace a hip cachet and making it a favoured destination site for youth. It also developed a reputation for racier profiles and a raunchier attitude than other sites. In 2005 Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation purchased Myspace and Intermix for $580 million, bringing Anderson and DeWolfe along.

While the site’s user base continued to expand rapidly, some parents, community groups, and state and local governments worried that young teenagers—among whom Myspace had become ubiquitous—were being exposed to potential sexual predators. In 2006 the company began detecting and deleting profiles of registered sex offenders and partnered with Sentinel Tech Holdings Corp. to develop the first national database of convicted sex offenders. Alongside such security-related innovations, Myspace pursued a steady rollout of new features, including a Myspace record label and partnerships with other services, such as the video-sharing Web site YouTube.

Membership sharply declined in the face of competition from the social networking site Facebook, and in 2009 Myspace attempted to rebrand itself as primarily a music site. In 2011 News Corporation sold Myspace to Specific Media (after 2015, Viant) and singer Justin Timberlake for about $35 million. Time Inc., bought Viant in 2016. Time Inc., was purchased in 2018 by the Meredith Corporation, which then spun off Viant and its holdings like Myspace as Viant Technology in 2019.