In memoriam
MySpace
Born 2003. Died 2013.
MySpace passed in 2013, having lived ten years as the largest social network in the world. Born in 2003, it offered a profile, a playlist, and the freedom to make a page your own. At its peak in December 2008 it claimed nearly seventy-six million unique visitors. Bands found fans. Teenagers learned to code. Facebook offered real names and a feed. Users left. The company was sold and sold again. A rebrand focused on music. The music pivot failed. By 2013 the user count had collapsed. He is survived by every platform that learned that discovery matters more than decoration, and by the memory of a time when a profile could still feel like a room you built.
We are rebranding MySpace as a social entertainment destination.
Acquired and neglected
Mourned by Bands who found their first fans, teenagers who learned HTML to customise a profile, and anyone who remembers when a social network could still feel like a room you decorated.
The profile, which lives on everywhere; the playlist, which outlived the page; and the memory of seventy-six million users who left when Facebook asked for real names.