It is pretty amazing how much the digital world has changed in a decade. Phones rarely flip these days; MP3 players are relics; People are messaging each other, but certainly not with AOL;
and the once-mighty MySpace is struggling to become relevant again.
While MySpace never had the hundreds of millions and billions of users that present-day social networks and apps enjoy, their peak totals are still pretty impressive for an early social network. Fewer internet users and connected devices and slower connection speeds a decade ago should also be considered when comparing MySpace's peak stats to those of present-day Facebook or YouTube.
That all said, MySpace dominated the internet in the U.S. at its peak, so I decided I'd do a quick roundup of MySpace stats from back in the day to show just how big it once was.
If you are interested in a few more recent MySpace stats, check out my post on DMR which has a more where these came from.
MySpace had 75.9 million users at its peak.
MySpace was launched in August 2003.
MySpace peaked in December 2008.
Estimated peak value of MySpace was $12 billion.
MySpace was overtaken by Facebook in worldwide users in April 2008.
At its peak, MySpace had 1,600 employees.
NewsCorp purchased MySpace for $580 million in July 2005.
In June 2006, MySpace surpassed Google as the most visited website in the U.S.
The original owner of the MySpace.com domain intended to use it for a data storage site.
MySpace actually tried to acquire Facebook in 2005 but rejected Facebook's asking price.
Please note that some of these numbers are easier to find than others. Some of these stats are based on news reports and not official company tallies. Basically, this is the best I can find and I don’t guarantee anything to be 100% accurate.
Labels: 2000's, Facebook, MySpace, nostalgia, social media
