MySpace Founder Finally Responds to Fans Begging Him to 'Bring It Back'

Could MySpace have a resurgence more than 25 years after its peak as a popular social media network? Fans have been begging the original founder of the platform, Tom Anderson, to make a comeback, and on Jan. 28, he finally responded to their pleas with a surprising answer.

“Ok – take me to 1 million thread followers. Show me you care and we will talk MySpace,” wrote the 55-year-old founder, lovingly known as “MySpace Tom” by fans, on Threads. He also included a throwback-style sparkly image macro that says “thanks for the add!”

Related: The Biggest Party Song of the 2010s Just Turned 15: A Look Back

The 55-year-old entrepreneur, who was everyone’s first friend on the social media platform that originally launched in 2003, only has three posts on his Threads page: two in July 2023 when he first made the account, and this new one.

Amid frustrations with other popular apps like the Meta-operated Instagram and Facebook, and TikTok, which recently had its U.S. arm broken off from its Chinese owner ByteDance, fans recently began inundating Anderson’s older posts with requests to revive his nostalgic platform.

“We the millennials summoned you. We want My Space back,” said one commenter, while another begged, “Can we please bring back MySpace, like it was?! We didn’t know how good we had it! We’re sorry! Please, help us!” A third wrote, “Tom. Since you’re here. Give us back old MySpace please, wallpapers, glitter and music.”

Anderson’s new post stirred up some serious attention, garnering nearly 15,000 likes and more than 2,000 comments in less than a day. “MILLENNIALSSSSSSSSS ASSEMBLEEEEEEEE!!!” said one commenter, while another added, “If MySpace makes a comeback I’ll delete Instagram and Threads.” Another requested that Anderson “rebuild OG MySpace with a timeline-only platform designed for us to just interact with our friends. NO to an algorithm!”

As of publishing this article, Anderson’s following stands at nearly 190,000 followers.

How Much Did Tom Anderson Sell Myspace For?

While MySpace technically never got “shut down,” its peak in popularity was from around 2005 to 2008 before Facebook became the dominant social network. However, Anderson sold the company just two years after launching it.

According to Yahoo! Finance, Anderson, who served as president of the company, and his cofounder Chris DeWolfe sold MySpace and its parent Intermix to News Corp. for $580 million. Anderson was just 30 at the time, and he “retired” from MySpace in 2009.

Where Is Tom Anderson From Myspace Now?

These days, Anderson describes himself on Instagram as “Former 1st friend” with an interest in “Music, architecture, golf, surf, interior design, writing, creativity.” He also wrote that he’s studying “Life Extension” and the “Don’t Die” movement as popularized by fellow tech leader Bryan Johnson. His Instagram shows lots of incredible travel photos and drone videos, proving that he’s enjoying life.

Related: ‘Don’t Die’ Star Bryan Johnson Has Been Dating His Cofounder, Kate Tolo, for Years

He also still seems to be involved in business as a venture capitalist and investor. His Threads bio highlights work with AI and Elon Musk’s SpaceX and says he’s a “CRISPR Investr.”