Everyone remembers their first friend . The familiar grin , the genial eyes . The casual over - the - shoulder pose , early 2000s Caesar cutting , and plain white T - shirt countersink against a series of cacography on a dry - erase board . Wait , we ’re talking about Myspace booster , right ?
Whether you have it off him as one of yourTop 8 , Myspace Tom , orthe Mona Lisa of visibility photos , Tom Anderson is an internet image . Before Facebook became the preferred tool for construction link online and snoop on ex ( afterward becoming the preferent tool of opinionated congener posting unasked political rants ) , Myspace was the social medium king . Along with ad executive Chris DeWolfe , Anderson co - plant the land site in 2003as a responseto older - old - school online brother scheme , Friendster . While Friendster did n’t permit anonym , Myspace emerged as a safe haven for invented personas of all sort . Users could customize their visibility page in myriad ways , add up colors , euphony , and of class , interchanging their chosen eight pals to showcase to the globe .
It did n’t take long for Myspace to take over the web in a openhanded way — within three - and - a - one-half yearsit pass by Yahoo as the most popular website in the United States , and Rupert Murdoch wound uppurchasing it for $ 580 millionand appointing Anderson president . ( He sold it a few years later for $ 35 million . Ouch ! ) But the internet , as we all know , is a quicksilver universe . A few old age after its prime , Myspace ’s numbers begin to pale in comparison to societal networking wunderkind , Facebook . By 2009 , Facebook waslogging 307.1 million global visitorsper month while Myspace gouge up just 123.3 million . Anderson had by then transitioned into an advisory theatrical role and matte up quick to call it a day — he left the company for goodness that year .
So where exactly does a retire 38 - yr - old multi - millionaire go from there ? Well , if he ’s Anderson , he goes literally everywhere . Since ill-use down from Myspace , the ego - promulgate " former 1st acquaintance " has become a successfultravel photographer , bust sensational exposure of places all over the man , includinghis homebase of Hawaii , Thailand , Iceland , and more . At the right erstwhile old age of 48 , Anderson tilt on the profit from his Myspace empire to fund his mania , which hediscovered after attending incinerate Man in 2011.“I took photos at the event and could n’t believe that was come from my own camera . I was hooked right away , " he wrote to Architectural Digest in a 2017 email . And while he ’ll forever be know as the internet ’s first champion , Anderson prefers sweeping view to human interaction in his current line of work . " On the uncommon occasion I get people in my landscapes and prospect , it ’s mostly never planned . I ’m a fiddling shy about it,“he enjoin ABC in 2014 .
