If the name Tom Anderson doesn't ring a bell, his picture probably would. Guy with brown hair and a white T-shirt sitting in front of a whiteboard of miscellaneous writing? Unless you're over the age of 35 or under the age of 16, then you definitely know what I'm talking about. It's Myspace Tom.
Yeah, remember Myspace? That thing that everyone used before Facebook? Although its 15 minutes of fame didn't last very long, it burned bright. And if you've ever had an account, even if you never used it, you were friends with Tom - your default friend. Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe co-founded Myspace in August of 2003 and enjoyed a fast ride to fame. By 2005, Myspace was reportedly getting more hits than Google. The site held that position until about 2008, when Facebook overtook it as the most popular social media site and nearly everyone made the transition. However, in those years of popularity, the forgotten social media giant hit some major milestones. In July 2005, at their peak of popularity, the infamous News Corporation (Rupert Murdoch's empire) bought Myspace and its parent company that no one hears about, eUniverse, for $580 million. And in August of 2006, Myspace's 100 millionth account was created somewhere in the Netherlands.
But faster than Myspace's rise to fame was its downfall. In the span of three short years, Facebook took hold of the public's obsession with themselves and their friends and is holding strong. Myspace went from having over 106 million users to just over 11 million today. Not that Myspace Tom is worrying too much over it, because while he still seems to be the face of Myspace through the years, he took part of the $580 million and let the site take Murdoch for a ride -- something that I'm sure keeps Murdoch up at night (other than dodging pies that is).
Since then, Anderson has been flying under the radar (I would too if I walked away with the money he did). In fact, his Google+ profile lists his occupation as "Enjoying being retired :)" with a measly 120,108 friends.
Something else I stumbled upon on Myspace Tom was an article about his past as a hacker. Apparently, in 1985 when he was just a 14-year-old high school freshman, Tom hacked into
a Chase Manhattan Bank computer system and and showed about 40 of his friends to do it too. This led to one of the biggest FBI raids in California history, with the FBI simultaneously raiding 23 homes, finding not-even-past-puberty teenagers, and seizing 25 computers. I guess Myspace Tom was always destined for greatness.
This really made me laugh. Who would have thought that "MySpace Tom" was such a mastermind? It feels like with all the talk about Mark Zuckerberg (I mean, he even has a movie dedicated to him!) we forget about the site that started it all, including its founders. It's weird to think that in the next hundred years these young computer geniuses will be next to the great founding fathers of our country as people who changed the world. Almost makes me want to learn how to become a hacker! Almost....
ReplyDeleteThis was so enjoyable to read. I never joined the MySpace world and it took me a while to get on Facebook, but now I'm on it every day and always hear people talking about Mark Zuckerberg. Everyone forgets who "MySpace Tom" is, when he was actually a major reason as to why social media is so important in todays world. He's lucky to be retired so quickly with his millions. I wonder if I could make a website that would impact the world the way he did..probably not but it wouldn't hurt to try!
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