Creators of iconic social network announce surprise plans to revive platform
An iconic social network of the 00s could be making a comeback over 20 years after it first launched online in 2003.
In its heyday, Myspace was the most popular social media platform offering, allowing users to create and customize their own profiles, discover new music and chat with friends.
However, while it celebrated its peak in 2006, not long after that it was eclipsed by the boom of Facebook, eventually being designed in 2013 to focus on music.
Now, it seems that Myspace’s creators could be set to revive the platform after they announced surprise plans.
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Chris and Tim Vanderhook, who are the current owners of the site having previously bought it from News Corp, revealed in a new documentary their plans for a relaunch.
In the doc, Chris said: “We heard that News Corp were going to sell it and we started to strategize how we got in there, because they weren’t calling us and they did not want to let us in. We knew we had to have a different angle to get their attention.”
Tim added: “For us, it was all about the artist community that was the heartbeat that we saw, that we wanted to resuscitate.”
Chris went on to say: “We still own Myspace. We are stewards of the Myspace brand at this point, and we are going to relaunch Myspace. We’re just waiting for the right time to do it. And if that one doesn’t work, we’ll do it again.”
While the revelation might be exciting for many millennials, it has not yet been revealed exactly when the brothers intend to bring Myspace back.
The platform was initially launched back in 2003 by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, with Tom in particular becoming a well known figure on the site.
This is because he was by default everyone’s first friend when they joined Myspace, with his profile picture becoming widely recognizable.
Many people have taken to social media to share their own reactions to the news, with one user writing on Reddit: “If Tom is heavily involved, it's extremely programmable like before, and it doesn't have an addiction driving feed, then I'm all in.”
And another said: “Would I use MySpace? There would have to be something really compelling. Maybe guarantees the algorithm isn't made for addiction. That you own your data on there etc. basically a social media platform without the evil bits (they can still have ads, but not targeted).”
While Myspace has technically never closed its doors on users - and can still be accessed for diehard fans - it once attracted a whopping 115 million visitors each month.
This earned the platform the title of the most popular social network until Facebook surpassed these figures in 2008.
By 2009, Myspace was steadily losing its unique visitors to Mark Zuckerberg’s platform, and it became clear that the loss was unsalvageable.