When Was MySpace Started?

When was MySpace started? The millions of users who enjoy the social networking site daily might think it's been around forever since they can't imagine life without it. A revolutionary platform for online interaction, MySpace was the first site of its kind to catch fire, surpassing the peaks of early competitors such as Friendster. As powerful a societal force as it has been, MySpace is a relatively recent creation.

2003 And The Creation Of MySpace
Two savvy entrepreneurs named Chris DeWolf and Tom Anderson developed MySpace in 2003. Before they teamed up, DeWolf and Anderson were members of competitor site Friendster. Dissatisfied with the limits of Friendster, DeWolf and Anderson shared a vision of a more flexible site with additional capabilities. Turning their vision into a reality, the pair created a social networking site that exploded in popularity between 2004 and 2005, with millions of users establishing pages and interacting. MySpace quickly surpassed competitor sites such as Xanga, Bebo and even Friendster in terms of revenue and users.

MySpace Today
MySpace continued to grow through 2008, occasionally facing controversy over privacy issues. It also stood as the target of parents who insisted it was being used maliciously or excessively by their children. Today, in the eyes of some, the MySpace era has largely passed. Social networking has not decreased in the least, but competing site Facebook has surpassed MySpace in terms of monthly users. This summer, MySpace began the process of laying off nearly 30% of their employees.

Regardless of its current second-place standing, the beginnings of MySpace mark the advent of widespread social networking, and this type of networking has proven to be more than a fad. Millions of MySpace users still love to customize pages with premade Web layouts or chat in real time. While 2003 doesn't seem that long ago, it is like centuries in terms of the Internet, which makes MySpace a granddaddy of sorts for the social networking experience.