Who Is Tom from Myspace and What Happened to Him?
Answer: He’s been enjoying his life since he sold the social network that marked the Millennials and was one of the first global phenomena in Silicon Valley.
If you are a member of the millennial generation, he was most likely your first social media buddy. His photograph will live on in the minds of all of us in our thirties and forties. Tom Anderson, also known as Tom of Myspace, is the inventor of the pioneering music platform that represented one of Silicon Valley’s earliest social phenomena.
It’s tough to recall how influential Myspace was and how artists like Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys, and even Adele were birthed there. However, much time has passed: the years of Myspace were the years of emo fashion, complete with odd hair, humiliating accounts on Netlog (another protagonist of the colonial past), and songs dedicated to adolescent grief. Those were the years when Cristiano Ronaldo made his Manchester United debut, 50 Cent released his first record, and the Concorde ceased operations.
In another period, when Facebook and Twitter had not yet taken over society, the approach to social media was much more innocent, and our Myspace profile was personalized with a plethora of photographs, backgrounds, movies, and galleries to be displayed. His upload was an almost difficult undertaking for the gang at the time (an aspect that could also have played a role in the premature end of this social network). Myspace was founded in August 2003, almost two decades ago, as a type of Friendster clone (from which Facebook also took a lot).
The phenomenon explodes
Over a million members were already active on this social network dedicated mostly to budding artists, who could post and share their compositions online in 2004. Shortly after, Rem decided to release their new album, Around the Sun, via Myspace.
In 2005, a period of exponential growth begins. Millions of users join Myspace, the platform begins to catch the interest of conventional media empires (the power balance had not yet shifted), and ultimately, in July of that year, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp buys Myspace by Tom Anderson for $ 580 million. It felt like a lot at the time, but today it would be peanuts (for comparison, in 2017 Google offered 30 billion dollars for the purchase of Snapchat).
Things appear to be going well for a while: users exceed 30 million, Rupert Murdoch states that he anticipates 200 by 2007 and the valuation approaches $6 billion. Politicians begin to reveal their Myspace sites in 2008. It is one of the indicators of the end, as it was with Second Life (another hit at the time). In June of that year, Facebook eclipsed Myspace in terms of user numbers, and a year later, 30% of the employees were laid go.
The decline of an era
Myspace is no longer a viable option in 2011. “Even Tila Tequila, the model and rapper who rose to prominence through her Myspace following, switched sides. The ‘queen of Myspace’ has switched to Facebook “At the time, the New York Times said. In retrospect, Tom of Myspace may have already seen everything: he had probably watched the rivalry between Facebook and Twitter intensify, he had recognized the vulnerabilities of his platform, and so opted to sell at the ideal time. Or perhaps he just understood that $ 580 million can buy a happy life.
In truth, what has Tom, the 51-year-old Myspace user, been doing so since 2005? He simply traverses the world. He travels the world and periodically publishes images of his adventures on Instagram, where he has 600,000 followers. Tom has not appeared since 2018 when he competed in the Ten Years Challenge in his unique style.
Tom relocated to Hawaii (and where else? ), while we transitioned from Myspace to Facebook and finally to Instagram. I’ve been to the Maldives, Bhutan, Iceland, China, and Canada, among other locations. He is always holding the camera, which he claims is his passion (even if he should go slower with the filters).
What is Tom doing now?
“I enjoy the good life”, his Twitter bio says. Then she tells us that, in addition to photography, she enjoys surfing and architecture. According to his Instagram bio, he has chosen to spend some money on SpaceX and Crispr (which, however, is not a business but biotechnology, who knows) and to promote life extension techniques (and with the life he leads, I can’t believe it).
He is less active on Twitter than he is on Instagram. One of his last postings came on January 9, 2021, when the siege of the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters had just concluded and the former president of the United States was being barred from all social media platforms. A circumstance that spawned a meme: “Tom from Myspace is going to make another buddy,” with a photo of Trump beneath it. As if to imply, Myspace is the only social network from which Donald Trump is unlikely to be barred. Tom must have enjoyed the meme since he shared it with his 200,000 followers (albeit with a puzzled face).
And it is precisely this fact that prompted Luke Winkie of The Verge to write: “If you are an entrepreneur in the wake of Silicon Valley’s crazy tradition — that is to say, you can perceive the difference in the quality of life that goes from having a $100 million asset to one worth $100 billion- then maybe you envy the lives of Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg.” Consider how these two handled the events of January 6 (the assault on the Capitol, ed.): Panicky, angry, gazing at the mess they contributed to creating, and contemplating dystopian remedies such as permanently excluding the president of the United States from their websites. What was Tom from Myspace doing instead while these networks went downhill? He went online for a little jaunt, completely at ease with his troubles. It was no longer his concern. “
Since 2005, Tom Anderson has had no desire to find his position in Silicon Valley’s Olympus, to become a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, venture capitalist, or anything else. He simply lived his life and appreciated the money he acquired. Meanwhile, Myspace has disintegrated, losing over 500 million songs along the way, and is just an extremely dull and worthless aggregator of music news. But Tom doesn’t seem to mind. He’ll be traversing the world, capturing images he won’t even publish on Instagram. Thank you, Tom, of Myspace: the man who knew everything about life.
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See you next time!
Wero
