myspace
One of Rupert Murdoch’s worst ideas, no? Purchasing Myspace at its peak?
News Corp has sold Myspace for $35 million, a fraction of what it paid for the once hot social media site even as a new generation of web-based start-ups is enjoying sky-high valuations.
Specific Media, an online advertising company, will acquire Myspace in a deal that caps a tumultuous period of ownership under Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which swooped in to buy Myspace for $580 million in 2005.
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Founded in August 2003 by Chris De Wolfe and Tom Anderson, Myspace was conceived as a way for friends and fans to connect with one another as well as with their favorite bands and artists.
Myspace, a kind of musical version of pioneer social network site Friendster, fast became wildly popular with teenagers and young adults, who spent hours designing their own pages with their favorite digital wallpaper, posting photos and adding friends.
At its peak in 2008, Myspace attracted nearly 80 million people in the United States, almost double that of Facebook. The growth was too fast and Myspace had trouble scaling the number of users who were flocking to the site. Meanwhile Facebook had opened up its platform to third-party developers, such as Zynga and its popular FarmVille game. That attracted more people and kept them on the site.
By 2011, the number of U.S. visitors to Myspace fell to about 40 million while those visiting Facebook totaled about 150 million, according to online measurement firm comScore.
For the quarter ended March 2011, News Corp reported a segment operating loss of $165 million, mainly due to declines at Myspace.
(click here to continue reading News Corp sells Myspace, ending six-year saga | TPM News Pages.)
That’s a pretty hefty loss…