If you recall the social networking website MySpace, then, you would probably be familiar with MySpace Tom.
His real name is Thomas Anderson. He and Chris DeWolfe co-founded MySpace in 2003, and Tom became a huge sensation with more than 200 million friends on the uber-popular website at the time. He was everyone’s “first” default friend, with a profile picture that goes down in history.
Even TV’s biggest reality star, Kim Kardashian West, used to have a MySpace page back in the day under the name of Princess Kimberly.
As a teenager, Thomas became very savvy with computers and extremely adept at hacking, and at one point, he had even figured out the security of Chase Manhattan Bank. He graduated from college and met up with DeWolfe when they both worked at XDrive, a digital storage company in 2000.
The pair launched MySpace, and people loved it because they didn’t have to use their real names on the site. Tom felt that their social networking site should allow folks to feel comfortable in expressing themselves in any way they desired.
MySpace.com went through the stratosphere when it was launched. Interestingly, both Tom and Chris were initially going to call the website either YoPeeps.com or Comingle.com.
Their direct competition was the Friendster social networking website, but Tom and Chris hit the road to bring more attention to MySpace and to lure attractive women to join the site with clever marketing campaigns.
For instance, MySpace would set up at nightclubs featuring a professional photographer who would snap free portfolio pics for women who had agreed to join the website. That, in turn, drew a huge number of male admirers who wanted to be where the sexy ladies were at and all joined MySpace.
Tom and Chris also persuaded social media personality Tila Tequila to drop Friendster and join MySpace. She did, and tons of her friends followed. It was brilliant marketing, and Tequila immediately gained 1.5 million friends on the site.
She may have been The Queen of MySpace as she was fondly called, but Tequila was no match for Tom Anderson’s popularity as The King of MySpace with his 200 million friends.
Then, Facebook came on to the scene, and even Mark Zuckerberg offered to sell his Facebook site to MySpace for a mere $75 million. Chris DeWolfe said no way.
Several years later, and MySpace couldn’t keep up with the comprehensive online service Facebook provided.
News Corp. acquired Myspace in 2005 for $580 million.
Today, Thomas Anderson, just shy of 50, is retired, and who could blame him after the payout he and DeWolfe received selling the company. He says he likes embarking on different journeys, and at the moment, has been studying travel photography and living in Hawaii.
He loves being on another social media site, these days. His Instagram account is called @myspacetom and has amassed more than 634,000 followers. Fans enjoy seeing MySpace Tom’s epic travel shots from dreamy destinations like Thailand, Bhutan and the Maldives.
