Back
Vishu Bheda
•
Medial • 6m
Before Facebook, MySpace ruled the internet. – 300 Million users. – A $12B valuation. It was the king of social media. But by 2010, it was a relic of the past. What really happened? Here's the untold story behind the fall of MySpace. In 2003, Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe launched MySpace, inspired by Friendster and backed by eUniverse. With eUniverse’s resources and a subscriber list of 20 million, MySpace grew rapidly, skipping the “slow growth” phase. It gained 1 million users in a month and 5 million within nine months, becoming the go-to platform for music and social connections. By 2005, MySpace was thriving, hitting 100 million users and surpassing Google as the most-visited website in the U.S. That year, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg offered to sell Facebook to MySpace for $75M, but MySpace declined. Later, News Corp bought MySpace for $580 million, and it seemed like a huge success. But the focus on revenue over user experience caused trouble. Cluttered ads slowed the platform, while Facebook’s clean, simple design attracted users. By 2008, people were leaving MySpace for Facebook. Despite redesigns and efforts to compete, MySpace couldn’t keep up. By 2011, its user base dropped to 37.7 million. News Corp sold it for just $35M—down from a peak valuation of $12B. MySpace’s fall teaches key lessons: 1. User experience should always come first. 2. Don’t prioritize short-term gains over long-term growth. 3. Innovation is critical—staying stagnant leads to failure. What if MySpace had bought Facebook in 2005? The social media landscape could have been entirely different. Instead, it remains a reminder of how small decisions can have massive consequences.
Replies (16)
More like this
Recommendations from Medial
P sai Krishna
Hey I am on Medial • 6m
There are more than 378 million Facebook users in India alone, making it the leading country in terms of Facebook audience size. To put this into context, if India’s Facebook audience were a country then it would be ranked third in terms of largest p
See More
Anonymous
Hey I am on Medial • 1y
Another story of a failed product by a tech giant! In 2013, Facebook launched Facebook Home, an ambitious project aimed at revolutionizing smartphone interfaces by deeply integrating the social media platform into Android devices. The idea was to tr
See More
Thakur Ambuj Singh
🚀 Entrepreneur | Re... • 4m
Keeping Users Hooked! 📲🔥 An Engagement Moat ensures frequent and consistent usage by making platforms irresistible. Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok dominate by fostering social interactions, mobile engagement and addictive content. The more users sta
See More
Mohd Rihan
Student| Passionate ... • 5m
Sam Altman started coding at the age of 8. Born in 1985, Chicago, attended John Burroughs School and later to Stanford Univ, dropped out in 2005. Continued to pursue his passion for tech and entrepreneurship, founded Loopt (location based social netw
See More
Download the medial app to read full posts, comements and news.