Thomas "Tom" Anderson is the American co-founder of the social networking
website Myspace, which he founded in 2003 with Chris DeWolfe. He was later
president of Myspace and a strategic adviser for the company until he left in
2009. As of October 2014, Anderson is popularly known as "'Myspace Tom'",
because, until 2010, he would automatically be assigned as the first
"friend" of new Myspace users upon the creation of their profiles.
Early life Anderson's father was an entrepreneur.
As a teenager at San Pasqual High in Escondido, California, Anderson was a
computer hacker under the pseudonym "Lord Flathead", and prompted a Federal
Bureau of Investigation raid after he cracked the security of Chase Manhattan
Bank. He was not arrested because of his young age.
Anderson studied English and Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley,
prior to becoming the lead singer of a band called "Swank." Anderson then lived
in Taiwan for some time, before returning to the U.S. to study for a
degree in Critical Film Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Career Anderson was a product tester and
copywriter at XDrive, a digital storage company in 2000, where he first met
DeWolfe. He initially joined XDrive as a product tester after answering a flyer
advertisement, while still at film school and looking to earn extra money.
After XDrive went bankrupt in 2001, he and DeWolfe founded direct marketing
company ResponseBase. They sold ResponseBase to Brad Greenspan's
eUniverse in late 2002. With other eUniverse employees, Anderson
set up the first pages of Myspace in August 2003. He founded the site partly
as a reaction to Friendster, and its policy of blocking accounts that did not
use real names. Intermix Media was then founded as the successor of eUniverse,
and it was under Intermix that Myspace garnered the level of popularity that it
is notable for. When Intermix Media and Myspace were sold to News Corp, Anderson
became president of the company. Myspace was sold to News Corp in 2005
for US$580 million. Following the News Corp acquisition, Anderson said: "Before
[the acquisition], I could do whatever I wanted. Now it takes more time to get
people to agree on things. All the budget reviews and processes. That can
be a pain. But it's not stopping us." Reuters quoted an unnamed News Corp
executive: "Tom [Anderson] was responsible for the product but ended up
being a complete bottleneck on getting things done." Anderson was replaced as
president in April 2009 by News Corp; by 2010, he was no longer the default
friend on Myspace, and was replaced by a profile called "Today On MySpace," or
"T.O.M." In late May 2012, Anderson announced
that he would be joining RocketFrog Interactive as an adviser to the
16-person, Los Angeles, U.S.-based company, which created a Facebook app.
However, in a September 2014 interview, Anderson did not mention any advisory
roles in his life at the time, while his Twitter blurb in October 2014 reads:
"Enjoying being retired." He explained in the interview that he is not
interested in returning to his previous vocation, but concluded: "I'll never say
never, because more than anything I like the idea that anything can happen. I
don't know exactly where my life will lead. Adventure and the unknown has
always been appealing to me." Media appearances
Anderson had a cameo appearance in the 2009 American drama-comedy film Funny
People starring Adam Sandler. Personal life
Anderson is active on other social media platforms, including Facebook, Reddit,
Twitter, and Google+. He has been dating Vanessa Mendieta since 2005. They met at
a college fair in 2004 Following an experience with photography
at the 2011 Burning Man festival, Anderson's interest in his own
photography was piqued. In a September 2014 ABC News interview, Anderson
credited friend and photographer Trey Ratcliff for facilitating his skill
development, and explained: "I'm not necessarily trying to represent nature
exactly. I'm trying to make something beautiful like a painter would."
Anderson travels globally with friends to locations such as Thailand and
Myanmar, where he primarily focuses upon landscape images.
Anderson also explained in September 2014 that his personal interests have
always been diverse: If you knew me before Myspace, you'd
probably thought I'd have been a scholar teaching philosophy in a university my
whole life. If you met me before college, you'd probably have thought I'd
be a musician for my entire life ... I like change.
References External links
Tom Anderson's Guest DJ Project on KCRW Derpbook
Interview with Tom Anderson -- Founder of Myspace on The Hour