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Myspace’s Owners Say They’re Bringing It Back From the Dead. They’ve Already Lost $150 Million Trying.

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Why This Matters

The revival attempt of Myspace highlights the ongoing challenges and risks in restoring legacy social media platforms, especially in a highly competitive digital landscape. Despite past failures and significant financial losses, the owners remain committed, reflecting the high stakes and potential for nostalgia-driven reboots in the tech industry.

Key Takeaways

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Get your playlists ready. Myspace’s current owners, brothers Chris and Tim Vanderhook, say they’re bringing the platform back from the dead. They haven’t announced a launch date or what it will look like, but they confirmed the plan in a new documentary simply titled “Myspace.”

It’s not the platform’s first comeback attempt. Myspace launched in 2003 and by July 2006 was the most-visited website in the US, ahead of both Google and eBay, according to Mashable. News Corp bought it and its parent company for roughly $580 million in 2005, only to sell it in 2011 for a reported $35 million to the Vanderhooks’ Specific Media and Justin Timberlake.

That ownership group tried a music-focused redesign in 2013. It flopped. The Vanderhooks say advertisers fled and they lost more than $150 million trying to rebuild the platform.

But none of that has killed their appetite for another shot. Tim Vanderhook says if this next attempt fails too, they’ll simply try again.

For a platform that once launched the careers of Adele and Arctic Monkeys, that kind of stubbornness tracks.