Tom Anderson
Tom Anderson is best known as the cofounder of Myspace, a social networking site launched in 2003 that played a pivotal role in popularizing online social interaction. Initially the default friend of every new Myspace user, his profile photo became one of the most recognized images on the Internet, particularly in North America. Born on November 8, 1970, in Los Angeles, California, Anderson had a background in digital technology and marketing, having previously worked as a hacker and in product testing before establishing Myspace with Chris DeWolfe and Brad Greenspan. Under his leadership, Myspace introduced features like customizable profiles and music sharing, attracting millions of users and leading to its acquisition by News Corp. for $580 million in 2005. Although he continued to influence the site, his role diminished after the buyout, and he eventually stepped back from the company. Today, Anderson describes himself as retired and enjoys traveling and photography, while remaining active on social media platforms. His interests include music and literature, with notable admiration for figures like Michael Jackson and authors such as Friedrich Nietzsche and George Orwell.
Subject Terms
Tom Anderson
Cofounder of Myspace
- Born: November 8, 1970
- Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California
Primary Company/Organization: Myspace
Introduction
The cofounder of Myspace in 2003, Tom Anderson was for years the face of social media, his account being added as a friend by default to any new user on Myspace—making his profile photo possibly the most-viewed face on the Internet, at least in North America, during that time. Although Myspace was neither the first social network nor in the end the biggest success, it was the first success, and introduced most of the general public to the idea of online social networking.
Early Life
Thomas Anderson was born on November 8, 1970, in Los Angeles, California. As a teenager, he was a hacker known as Lord Flathead and was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after breaching Chase Manhattan Bank's network. He attended the University of California, at both Berkeley and Los Angeles. While attending film school at UCLA, he joined digital storage firm XDrive as a product tester, later becoming a copywriter. When XDrive went bankrupt in 2001, he and coworker Chris DeWolfe founded a direct marketing company, ResponseBase. ResponseBase was sold to eUniverse in 2002, bringing the two into contact with Brad Greenspan. Greenspan had founded eUniverse, a marketing company, in 1998 and survived the bursting of the dot-com bubble.
Life's Work
Anderson, DeWolfe, and Greenspan founded Myspace in 2003 as a division of eUniverse. DeWolfe had previously written a proposal for a social network while at UCLA and was responsible for the prominence of music on the site. Anderson, who was put in charge of product development, also instituted the policy that allowed users to use fictional names, in contrast with Friendster, then the most popular social network.
Anderson became the public face of the site. His account was added as a friend to every new user's account by default, although they could remove him if they wished. He was often recognized on the street as the site grew in prominence. Although always present at the celebrity-filled company parties and events, Anderson was known as a workaholic behind the scenes, staying at work late as a matter of routine or logging on from home.
Myspace became an enormous success. Anderson was made president of eUniverse, now called Intermix Media, and in 2005 Intermix was sold to News Corp. (owner of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal) for $580 million. The main aim of the sale was to acquire Myspace—the cost was more than recouped when News Corp. made a $900 million deal with Google to make Google the single search engine of Myspace. Anderson continued to work on Myspace, but as many entrepreneurs find after buyouts, he found that he now answered to a larger and more involved hierarchy and that his decision-making ability was constrained by needing to account for his actions to other people. Anderson had hands-on involvement with the Myspace 2.0 redesign in 2008, adding and enhancing video features (with licensed content from News Corp. and its Fox television and 20th Century Fox holdings), music, photo sharing, and integration with Twitter, while cleaning up the physical look and feel of the site to something more streamlined and functional. The business side did not seem to appeal to him as much, and when he was replaced as president in 2009, he seemed content in his “ambassador” role—although he did not have much involvement with the company after.
In 2010, the default friend on Myspace became a nonpersonal profile called Today on Myspace rather than Tom Anderson. In 2019, Anderson's profile page stated that he no longer worked for the company.
Although Anderson always downplayed the significance of Facebook, he made his admiration of Google+ known. In his view, Google+ realized much of what he had hoped Myspace would become, incorporating a social overlay that would draw users into as much of the Internet experience as possible.
Anderson's web page describes him as retired and both traveling and photographing the world. In summer 2012, he became an adviser to the Los Angeles start-up RocketFrog Interactive, developers of Facebook games. RocketFrog's business model combines games and ads; the prizes won in games like poker and blackjack are provided by sponsors who also pay to display their brand on game objects.
Personal Life
Anderson remains active on social media sites, with hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and active Facebook accounts. According to his own initial Myspace profile, he is a fan of the young Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, Teenage Fanclub, and the Beatles, and he has named as his heroes his favorite authors: Friedrich Nietzsche, George Orwell, and Laurens van der Post.
Bibliography
Angwin, Julia. “Putting Your Best Faces Forward.” Wall Street Journal 29 Mar. 2009. Print.
---. Stealing Myspace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America. New York: Random House, 2009. Print.
boyd, danah. It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. New Haven: Yale UP, forthcoming. Print.
---. Zephoria.org.
From Myspace to My Place: The Men's Guide to Snagging Women Online. New York: Flyness, 2008. Print.
Kendall, Peggy. Rewired: Youth Ministry in an Age of IM and Myspace. Valley Forge: Judson, 2007. Print.
Turner, Millie. "Give Me Space: I Owned the World's Most Popular Social Network of the 00s--I Sold It for $580 Million and Quit Fame for a Happy New Life." The US Sun, 8 Aug. 2023, www.the-sun.com/tech/8794114/myspace-owner-tom-anderson-where-is-he-now/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2024.
Winkle, Luke. "Myspace Tom Got It Right." The Verge, 29 Apr. 2021, www.theverge.com/2021/4/29/22407403/myspace-tom-legacy-tech-execs-zuckerberg-dorsey. Accessed 8 Mar. 2024.
Winograd, Morley, and Michael D. Hais. Millennial Makeover: Myspace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2008. Print.