Even MySpace's Founders Have Stopped Using MySpace
How over is MySpace? So over that even the guys who founded it can't be bothered to update their profiles. Former CEO Chris DeWolfe “cringes” on the rare occasions when he visits his page on the soon-to-be-sold social networking site …
Context & Ripple Effects
The arc here is a two-year unwind that started with governance, not users: News Corp first explored replacing its leadership back in April 2009 weighing CEO options before Facebook executive Owen Van Natta took over and founder Chris DeWolfe stepped down. By February 2010 the trade press was already writing the obituary, and the company's own data confirmed it — a record-low 50.2 million monthly uniques, nearly 500 jobs cut in January 2011, and mid-level managers departing with critical knowledge.
What makes this story land is the symbol: the man who built the site says he 'cringes' when he visits it, while the new venture he has been raising money for since 2009 signals where his attention went. With News Corp preparing to sell, even the founders' public disavowal is now part of the asset being shopped.
First-order effects
- News Corp's sale process gets harder: any bidder now prices MySpace knowing its own creators won't use it, which pressures the valuation on top of subscriber losses and last year's 47 percent workforce cut.
Second-order effects
- Buyers are pushed toward the analyst argument that MySpace can survive only as a music destination rather than a general social network — a repositioning that would put it in direct competition with streaming and label partnerships instead of Facebook.
Third-order effects
- If founders abandoning their product becomes the visible marker of a platform's end-stage, it reinforces how fast network effects can invert: the same switch that built the 2006-era 'MySpace for grown-ups' era runs in reverse once the core audience migrates, leaving acquirers to buy audiences, not companies.
The trend: First-generation social networks are being repriced from growth assets into niche content properties, with founder exit as the clearest tell that the network effect has broken.