RESEARCH STARTER

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.

Full Article

  • Primary Company/Organization: Myspace

Introduction

Tom Anderson, the cofounder of Myspace in 2003, was for years the face of social media. His account was added as a friend by default to any new user on Myspace—making his profile photo one of the most-viewed faces on the internet in the 2000s, at least in North America. Although Myspace was neither the first social network nor the biggest platform in the end, it was the first success and introduced most of the 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, a marketing company, in 2002, bringing the two into contact with Brad Greenspan. Greenspan had founded eUniverse 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 or logging on from home as a matter of routine.

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 he found that he now answered to a larger and more involved hierarchy, and that his decision-making ability was constrained. Anderson had hands-on involvement with the Myspace 2.0 redesign in 2008, adding enhanced video features (with licensed content from News Corp. and its Fox television and 20th Century Fox holdings), music, photo sharing, and integration with Twitter. Additionally, Anderson cleaned up the physical look and feel of the site to something more streamlined and functional. The business operations of Myspace did not appeal to him as much. When he was replaced as president in 2009, he seemed content in his new role as ambassador—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, “T.O.M.,” 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 described himself as retired on his web page. Since retirement, he has traveled and photographed the world, photography becoming his passion after attending Burning Man in 2011. In summer 2012, he became an advisor to the Los Angeles start-up RocketFrog Interactive, the developer 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.

In October 2023, studios Gunpowder & Sky and The Documentary Group announced the co-production of a Myspace documentary, featuring Anderson among the other pioneers of the social platform.

Personal Life

In the mid-2020s, Anderson resided in Southern California and Hawaii. Anderson remained active on social media sites, with hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and active Facebook accounts. His Myspace profile declared him a fan of the young Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, Teenage Fanclub, and the Beatles. He also cited his heroes as his favorite authors: Friedrich Nietzsche, George Orwell, and Laurens van der Post.



Bibliography

Angwin, Julia. Stealing Myspace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America. Random House, 2009.

Angwin, Julia. “Putting Your Best Faces Forward.” Wall Street Journal, 29 Mar. 2009.

Boyd, Danah. It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. Yale UP, forthcoming.

Cimino, Alexa. “MySpace Tom Makes Rare Appearance on Mainland After Selling His Company for $580M and Fleeing to Hawaii.” Daily Mail, 19 Jan. 2025, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14259375/myspace-tom-anderson-unrecognizable-hawaii.html. Accessed 14 Aug. 2025.

Kendall, Peggy. Rewired: Youth Ministry in an Age of IM and Myspace. Judson, 2007.

Nakashima, Ryan. “MySpace Outlines Makeover After Exec Shake Up.” Bloomberg Businessweek, 10 Mar. 2010, www.web.archive.org/web/20130725100607/http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EBU27G0.html. Accessed 14 Aug. 2025.

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.

White, Peter. “Myspace Doc in the Works With Gunpowder & Sky & the Documentary Group.” Deadline, 16 Oct. 2023, www.deadline.com/2023/10/myspace-documentary-1235573294/. Accessed 14 Aug. 2025.

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. Rutgers UP, 2008.

Full Article

  • Primary Company/Organization: Myspace

Introduction

Tom Anderson, the cofounder of Myspace in 2003, was for years the face of social media. His account was added as a friend by default to any new user on Myspace—making his profile photo one of the most-viewed faces on the internet in the 2000s, at least in North America. Although Myspace was neither the first social network nor the biggest platform in the end, it was the first success and introduced most of the 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, a marketing company, in 2002, bringing the two into contact with Brad Greenspan. Greenspan had founded eUniverse 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 or logging on from home as a matter of routine.

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 he found that he now answered to a larger and more involved hierarchy, and that his decision-making ability was constrained. Anderson had hands-on involvement with the Myspace 2.0 redesign in 2008, adding enhanced video features (with licensed content from News Corp. and its Fox television and 20th Century Fox holdings), music, photo sharing, and integration with Twitter. Additionally, Anderson cleaned up the physical look and feel of the site to something more streamlined and functional. The business operations of Myspace did not appeal to him as much. When he was replaced as president in 2009, he seemed content in his new role as ambassador—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, “T.O.M.,” 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 described himself as retired on his web page. Since retirement, he has traveled and photographed the world, photography becoming his passion after attending Burning Man in 2011. In summer 2012, he became an advisor to the Los Angeles start-up RocketFrog Interactive, the developer 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.

In October 2023, studios Gunpowder & Sky and The Documentary Group announced the co-production of a Myspace documentary, featuring Anderson among the other pioneers of the social platform.

Personal Life

In the mid-2020s, Anderson resided in Southern California and Hawaii. Anderson remained active on social media sites, with hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and active Facebook accounts. His Myspace profile declared him a fan of the young Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, Teenage Fanclub, and the Beatles. He also cited his heroes as his favorite authors: Friedrich Nietzsche, George Orwell, and Laurens van der Post.



Bibliography

Angwin, Julia. Stealing Myspace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America. Random House, 2009.

Angwin, Julia. “Putting Your Best Faces Forward.” Wall Street Journal, 29 Mar. 2009.

Boyd, Danah. It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. Yale UP, forthcoming.

Cimino, Alexa. “MySpace Tom Makes Rare Appearance on Mainland After Selling His Company for $580M and Fleeing to Hawaii.” Daily Mail, 19 Jan. 2025, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14259375/myspace-tom-anderson-unrecognizable-hawaii.html. Accessed 14 Aug. 2025.

Kendall, Peggy. Rewired: Youth Ministry in an Age of IM and Myspace. Judson, 2007.

Nakashima, Ryan. “MySpace Outlines Makeover After Exec Shake Up.” Bloomberg Businessweek, 10 Mar. 2010, www.web.archive.org/web/20130725100607/http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EBU27G0.html. Accessed 14 Aug. 2025.

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.

White, Peter. “Myspace Doc in the Works With Gunpowder & Sky & the Documentary Group.” Deadline, 16 Oct. 2023, www.deadline.com/2023/10/myspace-documentary-1235573294/. Accessed 14 Aug. 2025.

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. Rutgers UP, 2008.

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