MySpace

The social network that taught a generation HTML and custom backgrounds, beat Google to the top of US web traffic, and then lost everything to Facebook and a botched redesign.

† 2003 – 2013No PMF Died in 2013

Born

2003

Died

2013

Lifespan

10 years

Cause of Death

No PMF

What Happened

MySpace launched in August 2003 and became the defining social network of the mid-2000s. Users customized profiles with raw HTML, ranked their friends in a public Top 8, and soundtracked their pages with embedded MP3s. For millions of people, it was the first place the internet felt truly personal.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp acquired MySpace in July 2005 for $580M. By June 2006, it had overtaken Google to become the most visited website in the United States. A Google search deal guaranteed $900M in revenue. At that moment, MySpace looked like the future of the web.

Then Facebook happened. Cleaner design, a real-name graph, a news feed, and relentless product iteration peeled off MySpace's users starting in 2008. News Corp slowed product development, loaded the site with ads, and fought internal political battles while Facebook ate its lunch every quarter.

News Corp sold MySpace to Specific Media in June 2011 for $35M — a 94% haircut on their acquisition price. A 2013 Justin Timberlake-backed redesign alienated its last loyal users. In March 2019, MySpace admitted it had lost 12 years of music uploads — 50 million songs — in a botched server migration. The site technically still exists. Practically, it died long ago.

“MySpace is going to be so big, it's going to blow your mind. It's the hottest property on the internet.”

— Rupert Murdoch, News Corp CEO, shortly after the 2005 acquisition

Last Words — Official Shutdown Notice

“As a result of a server migration project, any photos, videos, and audio files you uploaded more than three years ago may no longer be available on or from Myspace. We apologize for the inconvenience.”