Description
Myspace is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, the site was the first social network to reach a global audience and had a significant influence on technology, pop culture and music. The site played a critical role in the early growth of companies like YouTube and created a developer platform that launched the successes of Zynga, RockYou and Photobucket, among others. From 2005 to 2009, Myspace was the largest social networking site in the world.
In July 2005, Myspace was acquired by News Corporation for $580 million and, in June 2006, it surpassed Yahoo! and Google to become the most visited website in the United States. It generated $800 million in revenue during the 2008 fiscal year. At its peak in April 2008, Myspace and Facebook reached 115 million unique users, but Myspace narrowly lost to the newly emerging Facebook in terms of global users. In May 2009, Facebook surpassed Myspace in its number of unique U.S. visitors. Since then, the number of Myspace users has declined steadily despite several redesigns. By 2019, the site's monthly visitors had dropped to seven million.
In June 2009, Myspace employed approximately 1,600 employees. In June 2011, Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake jointly purchased the company for approximately $35 million. On February 11, 2016, it was announced that Myspace and its parent company had been purchased by Time Inc. for $87 million. Time Inc. was in turn purchased by Meredith Corporation on January 31, 2018. On November 4, 2019, Meredith spun off Myspace and its original holding company (Viant Technology Holding Inc.) and sold it to Viant Technology LLC.
